The Skies Shall Fall Again
by ebi pers
Summary: Seventeen years after the aliens have left Earth, a familiar face resurfaces to let everyone know they're coming back. Matt's been taken and Tom is missing, prompting Hal's kids and Ben's son to go on a search for their missing family members while the surviving members of the 2nd Mass must prep for war while trying to track the kids down. Partial-OC, T for language. NEWLY UPDATED!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys! I've been itching to do a next-gen fic for Falling Skies, sort of explore what would happen after Earth is reclaimed. This story is set seventeen years after the invasion ended. Now, seventeen years later, humanity has done its best to rebuild (and is still in the process of doing so). Therefore, technological process is only just approaching what it was before the invasion began. Hal is now married to Maggie (aw!) and they have two kids. And this story will also bring BACK a character of mine, Alexandra Carter, who I introduced in the story 'Keep Your Eyes Open.' Don't worry, there aren't any major spoilers in here regarding that storyline but the important thing is, she's married to Ben. The story also brings back all of our favorites but it will revolve around the two children of Hal and Maggie and the only son of Ben and Alexandra. I plan to tell a (hopefully) good and realistic story and put a unique spin on what I think would happen once this whole alien ordeal ends. Do me a favor and read/review for me? Special shoutout to WhisperMaw who encouraged me to post this. **

**PS: This is told in first person. Each chapter will be told from a different perspective (usually one of the three major characters).**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Rebecca Mason**

I stood at the top of the banister, peering down over the sides, observing the exchange going on below me. It was late, well past midnight, and I had been lying in bed listening to music when I heard the doorbell ring. I don't know what made me do it—I hadn't eavesdropped on my parents' conversations since I was six—but I felt compelled to find out who was calling at our house this late at night.

I saw my parents at the door, my dad's dark-haired head opening up and my mom standing just behind him. A woman, blonde like Mom, stepped inside and I could feel the atmosphere shift. Mom let out a gasp and stepped back, Dad stepping in front of her as if to shield her from something.

"Hello Hal, Maggie," the visitor greeted. There was a strange bulge on the back of her neck along with a pulsating, orange glow.

"What are you doing here?" Mom asked, stepping out from behind Dad. She was using the tone she used on me and my brother when she was especially mad.

"I'm just delivering a message," the stranger replied scathingly.

"Get out," Dad was talking now, his voice hard. "Or I'll call the police."

I couldn't see from my position but somehow I got the sense that the stranger was sneering at my parents. "You invited me in. And what I'm about to say affects you, Maggie, your _children_." Everything froze. "Are you going to let me speak now, Hal?" the woman resumed.

"What the _hell _do you want, Karen?" Dad snarled.

"Just thought you should know: my masters are coming back. Some of them are already here."

"What are you talking about?"

"Did you _really _think that they would just leave? After all the trouble it took to get over here in the first place?" A chill ran up my spine as I crouched down, peeking out through the bars of the banister. They were talking about _The War_.

I didn't know much about the War, aside from what they taught us in school. Basically, a group of aliens invaded Earth and attempted to eradicate humans from existence. We fought back and won. Or at least that's what it seemed like until right now. I knew my parents had both fought in the War. I knew my Uncle Ben and my Uncle Matt had, too, as did Granddad and Grandma and my dad's biological mother until she died. There were countless others, too. I knew that the aliens captured and put harnesses on kids to enslave them. My Uncle Ben was a victim of that and he still had the spikes in his back to prove it.

I'm sure my little brother Gabe knows more, he's _obsessed _with this kind of stuff, but aside from a few stories Uncle Ben told us, I know next-to-nothing else. Mom and Dad don't like to talk about it much. In fact, it's almost like they're ashamed. The War ended seventeen years ago, a year before I was born. It never really affected me. But now, this stranger named Karen was saying they were coming _back_?

"Who are you kidding, Hal?" she asked. "My masters invested too much in this invasion to just give up. They're bringing reinforcements and _everyone _is going to be wiped out this time. No more chances."

"So why did you come here?" my dad gritted out.

"Because. They have Matt."

"What?"

"That's what they sent me here to tell you. You want your little brother back? You're going to have to come get him. Better hurry, they won't keep him alive forever."

"You _bitch_!" I was shocked to see my dad almost hit the woman. Mom had to drag him backwards and for a moment the strange guest looked up and I _swear _she saw me. She fixed her eerily lifeless blue eyes right on me, a half-smile curling on her lips. And then she left without another word. I ducked back into the shadows and listened to my parents' conversation downstairs.

"I'm going after him, Maggie. Just wait here and…"

"No, Hal," Mom said gently.

"What do you mean no?" There were shuffling sounds, like he was putting on his coat.

"Don't you see? It's a trap! They _want _you to go looking for your brother, they _want _you to walk right into their hands!"

"Why would they do that?"

"They have a long memory, Hal. Your family caused them ridiculous amounts of grief. You don't think they want revenge?"

"He's my brother, Maggie! I'm not leaving him to die!"

"That's not what I'm suggesting! But if you go out there by yourself looking for him, you're going to end up dead! Just…sit tight. We'll call some people, get a group together, and then we'll go looking for Matt. There's strength in numbers. Besides, if the Overlords really are coming back for round two, we'll need some organization."

I could tell this was eating Dad up inside, even without seeing his face or reaction. Family's always been so important to him, I guess because he lost so much of it in the War. Those aliens were holding his brother hostage. Those aliens were holding _my _Uncle Matt hostage. And they were trying to bait out my dad so they could kill him too. The phone rang and I jumped, nearly screaming out and giving away my position. I paused, waited as Mom spoke to whoever was on the other end, and then hung up.

"I knew it," she muttered.

"What?"

"That was Anne." _Grandma? _

"What did she say?"

"Your dad's missing. Karen showed up at their door earlier today and told them the aliens had Matt. He went looking for him, she couldn't stop him. And now he's missing. Do you see why we have to wait?"

"They have my dad _and _my brother. Do you see why we _can't_?"

"Hal, you're not thinking straight!" Mom's voice was rising now. "You can't go out there all by yourself, they'll only get you too!"

"I'm going to find them, Maggie."

"No! You're staying, even if I have to lock you in a room myself." The voices were nearing the stairs now and I darted back into my room before I could get caught.

My head was spinning. Those…_things_…had kidnapped my uncle and now they might have taken Granddad too? And Dad was powerless to do anything because they were just going to hunt him down and kill him if he went searching for them. I don't know why the thought hit me, but once it was in my head it continued to grow, continued to make sense. If Dad couldn't go looking for them, maybe _I _could. Or at least me and my brother. And I had an idea as to who else could help us.

* * *

"Gabe!" I shook my brother awake. He rolled over and groaned groggily. "Gabe, wake up!"

"Rebecca? What the hell, it's three AM!"

"I know! Get up! We have to go!"

"Go _where_?" he huffed moodily, rolling over. "The only place I'm going is back to sleep."

I growled softly. He may be fifteen but sometimes he's _such _a child. "Gabe, it's important! I was listening to Mom and Dad talking…"

"Eavesdropping again?" he mumbled and I could imagine him rolling his eyes in the dark.

"It's _important_," I reiterated. "Uncle Matt and Granddad are missing. Kidnapped, maybe."

Gabe shot up in the dark, dark eyes suddenly wide and shining. "They're _what_?" he asked in disbelief.

"Some woman showed up at the door earlier," I whispered urgently. "And she told them that the aliens are coming back. She said they had Uncle Matt and then Grandma called and said Granddad went to look for him and that he was missing…" I trailed off as Gabe started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You are," he said. "You must have been dreaming or something, sis. I think you're losing it." He lay back down.

"Stop being such a prick!" I shook him again. "I'm serious!" He gave a loud fake snore. "Gabe! Think about it! You're such a dork about the War just _think_! Why would the aliens leave if they spent so much time and effort trying to make us submit? They're bringing reinforcements! Some of them are already here! And they're trying to bait out people like Dad and Granddad so that they can kill them and get them out of the way!"

Gabe rolled over to face me again and I could see interest in his eyes now. "You're serious?" he asked, slowly sitting up again.

I nodded earnestly.

"If this is a joke, I swear I'll kill you…"

"It's not a joke," I insisted.

Gabe shook his head like he didn't want to believe it. "If you're serious then we are all _screwed_, Rebecca. You have any idea what those aliens were capable of?"

I snorted. "You're the War geek."

"They have bombs that can wipe out entire cities. They have creatures that literally eat people apart from the inside out. And they have machines that can disintegrate people to dust! We wouldn't stand a chance out there…"

"Of course we would, genius! Look at what Dad and Mom did." I'll admit, most of our knowledge of what our parents did came from Uncle Ben. I've always envied our cousin Jimmy, his only son, to some extent. Jimmy knows all of his dad's war stories. On top of that, he seems to have some of his dad's abilities too, like the harness screwed with his DNA or something. He can hear pretty far and lift pretty heavy things. Granted, not as much as Uncle Ben can, but it's still something. And that's why we'd need his help, too. "Mom already talked about organizing resistance again but Uncle Matt might not have that kind of time. We need to get going _tonight_."

"How are we going to get there, Rebecca?" Gabe asked. "And how are we going to find him?"

"Easy," I replied. For a super-smart kid he sure doesn't think very creatively. "I can drive…"

I was interrupted by a snort. "You just got your permit and suddenly you're Mario Andretti?"

"Mario who?"

Gabe shook his head. "Never mind. The point is, you can hardly drive a car and even if you _could_, how would we find Uncle Matt? The aliens could be holding him anywhere."

"We'll need Jimmy," I replied. "They can't be keeping him too far away since they want Dad to find him. And Jimmy can hear better their communication frequencies so hopefully he'd be able to pick up where they are." That was the beauty of the war stories. While Gabe was studying history and technology, I was studying battle strategy. "They aren't looking for people like us, which makes it easier."

"You're crazy," Gabe shook his head.

"So are you in?"

There was a long pause but I knew what he'd say before he even said it. "I'm in."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so that's your 'teaser.' If you like it, review! I thought it plausible that the aliens would trick us into thinking they were leaving so we'd let our guards down. In any event, this is really just a 'set-up' chapter. The story will cover two points-of-view: that of the kids and that of the original (surviving) members of the 2****nd**** Mass as they prepare for the worst **_**and **_**search for the missing kids. So you think it's worthy of pursuing? I wanna hear it from YOU! You know what that means…**

_**Next chapter appearances by…Ben, Anne, Dai, Anthony, Lourdes, and of course Hal and Maggie. And more drama with the kids as they rope their cousin Jimmy into all of this. But none of this can happen without readership! **_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Wow! Love the support I've gotten thus far, thanks everyone! Just an FYI: I've put my Hal/Lourdes story on hold until season's end. I want to see how everything plays out before I go ahead and add more to it. So no more updates on that story until after season 2 ends in mid-August. At least, that's the plan. Anyway, this chapter will address more main questions you all may have. Because of this, I'm doing a longer chapter with **_**two **_**POVs. You'll see. Please review, it was you guys who wanted more!**

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**Chapter 2: Jimmy Mason**

_They were coming back_. I _knew _they were coming back. Dad even mentioned it a few times, that he could feel it somewhere deep inside of him. He's been on-edge lately, a lot more cautious and quiet. He's not like he usually is. He doesn't want to talk about the War anymore, he gets really self-conscious when people stare at his spikes…

Dad's always been proud of his spikes, for as long as I can remember. He even wrote a couple of books about the topic. He's the go-to expert on all things Alien Overlord. His aging has slowed so that now, even though he's thirty-four, he looks to be in his mid-twenties. Doctors have interviewed him, studied him to try to find ways to reverse the aging process. Mom thinks it's disgusting that they're using him as a lab rat but he doesn't mind. I get the sense he's trying to make up for something.

It's our family secret, but part of that's found its way into me, too. We never told anyone outside of our close friends and relatives because Dad doesn't want to subject me to that kind of treatment. I can hear far and well, and I'm a bit sensitive to radio frequencies. Not as bad as my dad is, but I can hear faint ringing when the radio picks up white noise or when the guy down the street is messing with his HAM radio. And then there's the strength thing. I'm only fifteen, I barely weigh a hundred and fifteen pounds, and I can lift nearly twice my own weight. Again, Dad can lift more, but it's still kind of scary. My grandmother says that the harness altered my dad's DNA and that a weaker version of its powers was passed on to me. I can't tell people though, especially not kids at school. They think it's pretty cool I have a dad with a pointy back (even if they're parents don't) but they'd probably be really freaked out if they found out what I can do.

For the past few weeks, Dad had been saying he could feel them getting closer. He knew there were still some of those Overlords hanging around on Earth but he always felt they were far away and weak. They would remain in hiding and eventually die off. But lately he's been feeling a stronger connection. When they retreated, seemingly inexplicably, they took a lot of harnessed kids with them and he can feel them nearby again. _They're getting closer_.

I first began detecting their presence, closing in, about two days ago. They're still a long way off, at least judging from what I can hear, but their numbers have been increasing on Earth, too. And there's one nearby. Sometimes I can feel him close to me. I don't know if they know about me or what I can do, but I know they know about Dad. They want Dad back. Or dead. He's a liability to them.

I was surprised when my cousins showed up in my backyard, pelting my bedroom window with rocks and almost giving me a heart attack. I could immediately see Rebecca's blonde hair reflecting the light from the moon. She was looking up at me desperately. Gabe was standing next to her, looking more hesitant.

"What is it?" I asked groggily, my heartbeat just beginning to return to normal.

"Come down!" Rebecca hissed. _Whatever it is must be important. _

I crept down the stairs quietly so that my parents wouldn't wake up and tip-toed out the backdoor and into the backyard. "What is it?" I repeated, feeing the urgency of the situation.

"We need you to come with us," Rebecca began. "Be our…alien detector."

"What?" I hissed.

Gabe took over, obviously annoyed with his older sister. "What Rebecca _means_ is: we think the aliens may be coming back to Earth, and we think they may have taken Uncle Matt. Granddad's missing too."

I was stunned. _And stupid! Of course they'd try to strike our family! _It made sense, if one thought about it. Our granddad was second-in-command of the biggest bunch of hell-raisers America ever saw. The aliens must have a _special _hatred in their hearts for the Mason clan. And if they were coming back, they would probably be trying to eliminate past resistance leaders. Which would explain why I could feel them when we went to New York City on vacation, or when we took a class trip to Connecticut. _They're strategically targeting the families of resistance leaders. _And we were next. "How do you know they have Uncle Matt?"

"Some woman showed up at our house," Rebecca elaborated quietly. "She had one of those harness-things on her back. She knew our parents and she warned them that they had Uncle Matt. She said they might kill him!"

"We should let our dads handle this one," I said, fear rising in my stomach.

"That's the problem," Gabe said. "The aliens want our dads to go looking so that they can kill them and eliminate the threat. If they go…they're walking into a trap."

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked, though I could already see what the answer would inevitably be.

"The aliens are looking for our dads, not us," Rebecca resumed. "We were hoping you could…find where they're hiding? This way we can break in and break Uncle Matt!"

I sighed, shaking my head slowly. She was right. I could tell she knew it by the look in her eye, but it was obvious Gabe wasn't sure. There weren't many other alternatives, though. If our dads went, they'd inevitably be killed without mercy. We couldn't let that happen. And it was true—they weren't looking for us. They'd never expect us to do anything. "Even if we can find the place, how do we get in?" I asked.

Rebecca's face fell and I could tell she hadn't thought things through that far. "I-I…don't know," she faltered.

And then the idea came to me from one of my dad's war stories. "I have an idea," I whispered urgently. "Wait here, I'm going to go grab some stuff and I'll meet you out front." I felt the excitement building up in me now, the surge of adrenaline, and I wondered if this was how my dad felt going off to fight. _Maybe I'll earn a place in the Mason family history too! _Maybe I'd even live up to his legacy.

* * *

"So what's your plan?" Rebecca asked, steering the big, white boat of a car through the nearly empty streets. I wasn't too surprised. If she'd snuck out, why wouldn't she take the old GTO, too? Cars weren't a luxury item anymore, not like they had been 'til I was almost nine. People didn't have to use old cars anymore—the newer ones had been fixed and there was even talk of a factory opening in the Midwest to produce brand new models. I guess my Uncle Hal kept the old convertible for sentimental reasons. It made many cameos in Dad's war accounts, after all.

"Easy," I said in reply. "I was thinking about my dad's war stories and he told me how your dad rescued him from the skitters."

"How'd he do that?" Gabe piped from the front passenger seat.

I was surprised. I knew Uncle Hal hated talking about the war, couldn't blame him for it. But I would have imagined he would have shared _that _with them. "He pretended to be a harnessed kid. The skitters never really kept track of how many they had so it was easy for him to slip by. We could do the same…"

"How are we going to pull that off?" Rebecca questioned. "We don't have anything that looks like a harness."

I thought for a bit. "I can fix that, too." My mom works for a science lab that studies the aliens' biology and anatomy. They have a bunch of dead specimens there, including a group of harnesses taken off the backs of kids. Stealing was wrong, but then again this was a desperate situation. And technically I was just planning to _borrow _the harnesses. I directed my cousin to turn at the next intersection and began to fill them in on what I had in mind.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hal Mason**

I couldn't sleep all night, not after what Karen had told me. Told _us_. If my wife hadn't been in bed beside me, her arm draped across my chest just to make sure I couldn't move without her feeling it, I think I would probably have gone anyway. Every part of my brain screamed 'it's a trap!' but every other part of me told me that Matt was my brother. My _youngest _brother. And that he was in danger. Add to that the fact that my dad was suddenly AWOL and it wasn't looking great. But Maggie had a point. If those bastards really were coming back, we'd have to organize the old 2nd Mass group again and try to convince everyone else to join us. It wouldn't be too hard to make them believe us—most of the people still remembered the invasion days—but, then again, people like to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the problem 'til it's too late.

And Karen…that was the unnerving part. Because I had aged since the invasion ended when I was nineteen. I'm thirty-six now and I look close to it. But Karen looked _exactly _the same. It was like the harness had frozen her aging process, left her looking eighteen forever. Ben didn't age like the rest of us, I knew that, but he at least looked close to his real age.

Lying awake in bed I began to think about the invasion days, the resistance days. We had all drifted apart after the invasion ended, all of us desperate for whatever we had before. Dad and Anne got married and it was great to see him complete again. Maggie and I weren't content to take things slow and, like a lot of people, we rushed to get married and start a family. We needed to repopulate the Earth and I have no regrets. I took a job at a communications company. It's not the best work ever but I do get to coordinate projects as we try to restore global communication. It's worked for this hemisphere so far and we're working on bringing technology to the rest of the world as well. Ben ended up in a relationship with an old family friend of ours. They had their son and were married shortly after and he started teaching history just like Dad. Matt moved out when he hit eighteen and began working as an engineer.

But that was the extent of what I knew about everyone else. I knew that Captain Weaver passed away a few years back after battling some form of cancer. But I wasn't at the funeral, didn't find out from Anne until after he was buried. I knew Anthony had gone back to being a police officer in the city of Boston, overseeing the rebuilding efforts but our paths have never crossed. Last I heard of Dai, he had opened a bar of some sort in Quincy. Lourdes was working at Brigham and Women's Hospital but I hadn't seen her once. And Pope dropped off the face of the Earth, probably for the better. I knew Maggie had a log book of some kind with contact info for everyone but I'd never really felt compelled to go look anyone up or reach out. It wasn't a nice period of time to now it seemed I'd have to.

It was six AM before I determined it was a late enough hour to get up. Maggie stirred and shot up next to me, instinctively trying to drag me back into bed. "Easy," I murmured softly to soothe her. "It's morning."

She nodded, blinking the sleep from her eyes before crawling out of bed after me. "We should probably…get in touch with the others," she said.

"Yeah," I replied, stretching as I headed for the door. Rebecca's bedroom door was open, the bed empty and made. Gabe's bed was a mess and the curtains were drawn but he was nowhere to be found either.

I fought the panic down. I had to remind myself that they were teenagers and they were likely to do stuff like this. Hell, I did it when I was fifteen, sixteen. I knew they were responsible enough not to make poor decisions. They'd be back soon, probably tired, and they would definitely be getting an earful. But there was no reason to assume they were in trouble. At least not yet. I told Maggie my suspicions. She didn't look pleased but she understood my point.

"I got in touch with Lourdes," she told me. "We're supposed to head over to her apartment right away, I gave her the gist of what was happening but I didn't want to give too much away. In case they're listening in."

"Sounds good," I murmured.

Lourdes' apartment was only a twenty-minute walk. I left the door unlocked so Rebecca and Gabe could get in. Lourdes greeted us at the door, still looking fresh and vibrant despite obvious stress levels. She invited us in and we sat down in the living room. I glanced about, unsure of what to say. _The Overlords are coming back? _There's no real way of phrasing it.

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked. I opened my mouth to reply but was cut off by a voice in the hallway off the living room.

"Mama?"

"Excuse me," Lourdes go t up and headed in the direction of what must have been the bedrooms. She came out a few moments later, carrying a toddler that looked a bit similar to her.

"Didn't know you had a kid," I mused aloud.

"His name's Emmanuel," Lourdes replied, setting the boy down on the floor so that he could play. The child crawled off after a wind-up toy that had been unleashed upon the rug.

"Where's your husband?" Maggie asked. "He might want to hear this too…"

Lourdes shook her head. "I don't have a husband."

"Then…who's…" I started but she interrupted.

"Let's just say Emmanuel wasn't conceived by choice and leave it at that."

"Oh." And then the true meaning of the words hit me. "_Oh_. I-I'm…sorry."

"You carried him to term anyway?" Maggie asked gently.

She nodded. "I figured…God sent him to me for a reason, that maybe He was giving me a gift for my sorrow." Some sort of distant look crossed her face. "And I was right," she added brightly. "He's…he's the light of my life."

I couldn't help but smile a little because only she would be able to find some upside in all of that misery.

"You guys have kids?" she asked.

"Two," I replied proudly. "Teenagers."

She released some sort of an uncomfortable laugh. "Has it been that long?"

I nodded and felt guilty for not having kept in touch. With any of them. These were people who had weathered an alien invasion with me. These were brothers and sisters in arms.

"So what was it you needed to talk to me about, again?" she repeated.

Maggie sighed and looked to me. I took a deep breath and began. "There's…really no easy way to say it but…we're going to need your help."

"For what?"

"W-we…have reason to believe that the Overlords may be coming back." I heard her gasp. "And…we need to be ready if they do."

"How do you know?"

"An old friend," I answered, not elaborating any further. "But we think they may have Matt as a hostage."

"What do we do?" Lourdes asked, leaning forward in her seat. "What can _I _do?"

Maggie took over for me, much to my relief. "Well first thing is to get the old group back together. If these things really are coming back then we'll need a strong group of leaders…including a medical officer or two. Once we have that, we can organize a search party to find Matt."

My phone started vibrating and I drew it from my pocket. _Ben_. "I-I…have to take this," I excused myself as my wife and the medic continued to talk.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Hal?" Ben's voice was urgent.

"What's wrong?"

"_Please _tell me that Jimmy's with you…"

I frowned, a sudden uneasiness falling over me. "What do you mean?"

"He's gone! He left a note saying Gabe had an emergency and he was biking to your place."

I bit my lip, a worried frown creasing my forehead. "He's not here, Ben. Neither are Rebecca and Gabe. I thought they might have snuck out with friends…are you sure Jimmy didn't do that?"

"No," Ben replied firmly. "He wouldn't do something like that."

"Hang on, I'll be right over." I hung up and signaled for Maggie to come nearer. This didn't look good…

* * *

**A/N: So now we sort of see where the two plotlines are going to go—one with the three kids and one with the original cast of the show. Lourdes' implied rape was an idea that played in my mind for a bit. I was hesitant at first but I think that she would be able to take the situation and make it positive, especially since she has the little toddler to care for now. I wonder what Hal and Ben are going to do now that they know their kids aren't out misbehaving but are actually MIA? And what of the rest of the 2****nd**** Mass? How are they doing? Guess you'll have to review so I'll be convinced to write more so you can find out! Thanks again for the great support. We'll see more of the original cast next chapter, so don't worry! (And perhaps some of Maggie's perspective on things? I feel like she's a mystery to everyone but herself…) **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Continuing with this story now. Just so you know, "Too Cold Outside For Angels To Fly" is on hiatus until season's end. This is the 'filler' for now and I will continue to add to it in the (long) space between seasons 2 and 3. So no worries! This chapter, we'll see some perspective from Maggie and from Gabe. I'd dearly love some reviews!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Maggie Mason**

"That was Ben," Hal murmured to me. I nodded, waiting expectantly. "Jimmy's missing, too."

My eyes widened and I knew what he was thinking. There was no way this was a coincidence. "You don't think…"

"I don't know!" he said, frustrated. "But what else could it be?"

"Calm down," I soothed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find them, Hal. All of them."

He shook his head, starting to pace while Lourdes looked on worriedly. "No, Maggie…we can't."

_What? _"What are you talking about?"

"_We _can't. Someone needs to stay and organize the others. I'll go to Ben's and the two of us will look for the kids…"

"But Hal!" I interrupted. This was the _worst _plan my husband's ever thought of. They were _my _kids, too, and if anything dared touch them then I was going to make damn sure it paid for it.

"Maggie, just hear me out! Yesterday, you told me I wasn't thinking straight and I was getting caught up in emotion. Don't forget those things…" he gestured out the window as if the skitters were just going to materialize. "…might be on their way and we don't have any idea how long it'll be before they get here. We need _you _to get the leaders organized. _I _need you. Ben and I can handle this."

I shook my head but I could feel my argument falling apart. "But…it'll go faster if we search together…" I was grasping at straws. I didn't _want _Hal to be right, but at the same time he could handle this and in the meantime _someone _had to be organizing the resistance again. "Okay," I whispered, afraid that saying it any louder would make me reconsider. "But please be careful, Hal," I begged. "You don't know how many of these things there are…or what they can do."

He nodded. "You know I will, Maggie." He kissed me quickly and for a brief moment I felt the urge to stop him, but he was already to the door by then. "I will find them," he promised. And then he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

Lourdes came up behind me, her son in her arms. I was grateful she hadn't tried to force her way into the conversation. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I nodded, turning and forcing a smile. "Hal went to go find our kids…"

"Find?"

I think I cracked then. I couldn't keep pretending I wasn't worried, that it didn't bother me. These were my kids! "They're missing!" I could feel tears stinging my eyes but I held them back. "And we don't know where they are but…God, we should've been more careful!"

"Hey, hey," Lourdes patted my shoulder gently, shifting the baby to her other arm. "It's going to be fine, okay? You said Hal went to go find them, right?" I nodded. "He will."

"I just want to be out there with him," I said. I've always hated being the one left to wait and wonder. The scariest part was that I had no clue what might happen next. God, I can't stand feeling helpless! It was like we were already reliving the invasion, even before any ships appeared in the sky.

"I know," the woman agreed. "I think any mother would. But Hal can take care of it. What can _we _do in the meantime?"

"We need to get in touch with the others that led the 2nd Mass," I repeated what Hal had asked me to do. "We have to…let them know what's happening and then get a plan going on what to do if these aliens really do decide to show up again..." I trailed off, shaking my head.

"But you still wish you were out there," Lourdes finished for me.

"Yeah." There was no further discussion needed.

It's funny because so much of my life was spent getting into and out of tight situations. The invasion was just one more example of it. And now, for the past seventeen years, I've been able to settle down and take things slow. Instead of worrying about my next round of chemo or about being hunted by aliens I've been worried about business calls, walking the dog, putting lunch into little brown bags or driving the kids to and from school events. And I remember sitting down and thinking _is this the life I was missing_ _that whole time_? It was peaceful, even in the middle of all that chaos. I had a husband who treated me far better than I deserved, I had two kids growing up, fighting, tearing the house to shreds, and I had something to believe in. But there was some part of me that missed those glory days, those days where it was me and Hal and the other guys riding motorcycles, shooting at skitters…I guess we tend to over romanticize things like that, especially once everything settles down. Now…now things were picking back up again and I found myself desperately trying to keep calm, trying to keep all that goodness that had come my way, trying to hang on to every bit of it.

"…so I think that would be a good place to start." Lourdes had been talking the whole time and it was only now that I realized I hadn't been paying much attention. "Maggie?"

"Yeah…that's…that's a great idea." I guess I'm not a convincing liar when I'm caught that much off-guard.

"I _said_, we should congregate some place convenient. I thought maybe...outside the Tower?"

_The Tower_. That _thing _that had spawned so many of the damn aliens had become a symbol of human spirit, the new Statue of Liberty. And it was conveniently located. "I guess," I shrugged, my mind starting to wander once more. I handed her the contact book. "Y-you should call…I can't." _There's too much on my mind. _

The people who I had grown so close to in the 2nd Mass were spread out. We'd all pretty much found our way back to Massachusetts. I guess we were all longing for that sense of home again. Hal and I settled into the newly rebuilt Boston. We found this…little house that was half-shelled out and he somehow got it into his head that _that _was the place we'd start a family in. I told him he was crazy but six months later he'd had the whole thing repaired, even a few flowerbeds out front because he thought I'd like them. Tom and Anne went back to Somerville, where Hal and Ben and Matt had grown up. Their house was long gone but they rebuilt another one in the same neighborhood. We don't go there very often—it reminds Hal too much of his mother. And then Ben found a place in a neighborhood next to ours and Matt went further south into Roxbury and became some sort of engineer to assist with reconstruction. Even now it's only half-finished.

The others…we lost touch, really. I guess when something that traumatic happens you like to forget _everything_ about it. I never felt any loss until now. I'd kept tabs on everyone, better than Hal but not as well as Anne. I knew Lourdes worked at Brigham and Women's and that she was a trauma surgeon. I _didn't _know she had a son. I knew Anthony was a police officer again but I couldn't tell you which precinct or even what division he worked for. I knew Dai opened up a bar that he likes to keep full but I couldn't tell you what the name of it was or even what street to find it on. I knew Captain Weaver died of cancer a few years back after a long, difficult battle, but don't ask me where the cancer was. And it goes that way for most of them—sort of this half-knowledge of what happened to them afterwards.

I listened blankly as Lourdes made the phone calls and set up a meeting time and place. Staring out the window, all I could think was that my children were out there somewhere, likely in harm's way. _Please, Hal. You have to find them…_

* * *

**Chapter 3: Gabe Mason**

When Jimmy directed my sister to the lab where his mom works, I knew something wasn't right. Not that I'd felt what we were doing was right in the first place but this…breaking and entering? Stealing from a science facility? This was a whole new kind of wrong. Like the illegal kind.

"Are you sure about this?" I hissed urgently as we made our way to the door of the building.

"It's the only shot we've got," Jimmy replied, completely self-assured. He searched carefully, looking, listening. "They've got the security system active but not the motion detectors," he finally concluded.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can hear the frequencies," he replied matter-of-factly. _I should've known_.

"Something doesn't feel right," I said, looking about warily.

"Will you shut up and get moving?" my sister hissed from behind me. "The sun will be up soon!"

"How are we supposed to get in?"

"There!" Jimmy pointed at a window three stories up. There was a window-box air conditioning unit hanging out of it. "All we have to do is pull the air conditioner out and we'll have a way in!"

"Hello?" I piped. "It's three stories up, how the hell do you suppose we get up there?"

Rebecca scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Look, genius," she poked the side of my head. "In case you forgot, Jimmy's got stamina, strength, _and _speed. And once he gets in, he can let us in, too, right Jimmy?" Our cousin nodded vigorously.

"Guys…" I couldn't shake this feeling that we were going to get in big trouble for this. "…I don't know. It just…it doesn't feel right…"

"I knew it," Rebecca shook her head. "I never should have gone in and told you about what was happening. I should've known you couldn't handle it."

I frowned. She does this sort of thing _all _the time, always talking down to me like she's _that _much older than me. She's a _year _older. One year! I decided right then and there that I was going to prove to her that I could handle it. "You know what," I said, my tone hardening to meet her challenge. "Never mind. I think it's a _great_ idea. In fact, I'll climb up the side of the building and get us in." I regretted the words the second they left my mouth.

"Really?" my sister raised an eyebrow.

I gulped. "Yeah."

"I don't think it's such a good idea," Jimmy intervened. "I'll do it." I was relieved when he grabbed hold of the drainpipe and started shimmying his way up it before I or my sister could protest. My resistance, of course, was token.

It took my cousin no time to get up the drainpipe. Once there, we watched as he wrenched the window box free with only nominal difficulty. I felt the pangs of jealousy start to resurface. They've been there since we were kids, it comes from being the same age and being so close—we're practically brothers. But he's always been _that _much better than me. I know it's wrong, I know he didn't choose to be this way but still…Everything I know about the war, Jimmy knows twice as much. If I kick a goal, Jimmy kicks three. If I lift a weight, he lifts twice that amount. We used to get into the stupidest fights when we were younger and right around when I hit eight I decided I'd had enough and wouldn't compete with him anymore. We got on much better after that and I was content with my own small victories. But now, watching him go all action hero, ripping out air conditioners and breaking into laboratories—wrong as it felt, it was still pretty cool to watch. I shook my head to clear the thoughts from them when he opened the door for us.

"How'd you get past the alarm system?" Rebecca asked as we charged into the building's lobby, headed for the stairs.

The wires ripped from the wall of the lobby's control panel held the answer. "It'll look like an ordinary loss of power to the monitoring company," Jimmy told us. "We've probably got about fifteen minutes to get what we need and get out before they come to investigate and find out the truth."

I could feel my heart rate increasing rapidly. If we got caught, this would be the _end_. Forget the aliens, forget the fact that my uncle and granddad were missing, if our mother found out we were breaking and entering…she'd probably skin us alive and wear our pelts. That's an exaggeration but you get the point.

"Which way?" my sister practically yelled at the top of the stairs.

"This way," Jimmy answered, leading us down another hallway. I was running out of breath, my sister only a little bit better off than me but he just kept going. Once more I found myself wishing I could be just a little bit more like him.

The laboratory door at the end of the hall was locked. "This is my mom's lab," he explained. "She has about a dozen dead harnesses in here; I saw them when I visited her."

"How do we get in?" I inquired, already having some idea as to what he was going to do.

"Like this," he replied, a somewhat smug grin breaking out on his face as he gripped the door and began pulling. To my amazement (but not surprise) the heavy metal door actually started to budge and once he got a good grip on it, he peeled it backwards.

"Great," I muttered, following my cousin and sister into the dark room. "Add destruction of property to our rap sheets."

Rebecca hit a light and we looked around. The room wasn't too dissimilar to the chemistry lab at our school, just bigger. There were a few tables, some equipment out on trays, and a bunch of charts indicating different vital organs on various alien species. I recognized the one with many legs as a 'skitter' and the bug-like one as a 'crawlie.' There were a few dead specimens in a glass box, carefully preserved for study.

"In there," Jimmy muttered, pointing to a room with all variety of 'danger' signs plastered to its front. "That's the specimen storage freezer. It keeps them cold so they don't decompose."

"Is it open?" Rebecca asked, approaching the door.

"It should be…" he fumbled for the handle and gave it a good tug. The freezer door swung open, a cold mist filtering into the room. "How much time do we have?"

I looked at my watch. "Eight minutes. Hurry up!"

We rushed into the specimen cooler and I almost jumped out of my skin when I came face-to-face with a preserved skitter. I'd only seen pictures, never any actual creatures. They were much uglier and _much _scarier in person.

"There!" Rebecca pointed to a series of containment boxes. We could see the harnesses peeking out through the slots. We rushed over.

"Seven minutes," I warned nervously.

"We'll make it," Jimmy assured us, getting a firm grip on the bars of the containment box and pulling them apart.

"I don't know…" I said, leery of the things inside. "Are you sure we should be stealing? From your _mom_?"

Both Rebecca and Jimmy shot me a look. "Our family members are at risk," he reminded me. "Besides, we're just borrowing the harnesses. We're going to bring them back."

I must have still looked uneasy because Rebecca spoke up then. "Look, Gabe, I know it feels weird. All of us feel the same way but there's no other alternative! Uncle Matt's in danger, Granddad could be in danger…we have to do this, okay?"

I nodded slowly. "Five minutes."

Jimmy reached into the box and pulled one of the harnesses out, tossing it to Rebecca. I could tell she was trying hard not to puke as she held the thing. The next one was tossed my way. It was cold and slimy feeling, a lifeless shade of brown. It was pretty gross and I held it away from my body like it would magically reanimate and attach itself to me. He pulled one more harness from the box before we dashed from the room, hitting the lights on the way out. I don't think I've ever run down a flight of stairs faster than I did at that moment.

I glanced at my watch as we made it back out to the GTO Rebecca had taken from the garage. I told her she was crazy—Dad painstakingly restored the convertible and she's a danger to herself and the public when she drives. "We've got less than three minutes," I said grimly.

"Dammit!" Rebecca swore, hitting the steering wheel.

"What?"

"The battery's dead!"

"We're going to have to hoof it," Jimmy said, hopping out of the car. "C'mon!"

"What about the car?"

"Leave it! I'm sure they'll find it again, not like it's going anywhere." We made a mad dash for the scraggly underbrush at the edge of the lab parking lot and dove into the shelter of the bushes and weeds. It wasn't even a minute later when the alarm company van pulled into the parking lot.

"Now what?" I whispered. "How are we supposed to find these aliens or Uncle Matt?"

"Shhh…" Jimmy shushed.

"What is it?"

"I-I…I can feel it. And it's close…"

* * *

**A/N: Cue ominous music as I leave you on this remarkable cliffhanger :P Please forgive Maggie's somewhat forced perspective, obviously my own character flow to me much better and I really just wanted to reveal more of the 'history' from Maggie's POV. I doubt I'll be playing around with her character anytime soon. But how was this delayed third chapter? Did you guys enjoy it? Let me know in the reviews so I know to continue. **

**Chapter soundtrack (I actually had one this time!)**

**-Hit Me Down, Sonny—The Ting Tings  
-Ocean Avenue—Yellowcard  
-Smells Like Teen Spirit—Nirvana  
-The Middle—Jimmy Eat World  
-Time of Your Life—Green Day **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Uh…what happened to all the reviews? I'm kind of disappointed by the COMPLETE lack of response (except for the lovely Borderline Sociopath, who actually did leave me one). What happened, guys? :( I don't usually complain over lack of reviews but then again I also hope for more than just one! Are you all sleeping? Come back! I miss you all! Okay, well now that that's out of the way, we'll move on. But seriously, guys I need reviews so I know what to improve and what to keep! Or if it's even worthwhile to continue updating this! So I hope to see a few more this time because I love hearing what you guys think! Oh yeah, and just to clarify: the story from Hal/Maggie/Ben/etc. point of view is, at present, taking place further along than the one for the kids. I apologize for this oversight but I'll be catching the times up very soon, don't worry!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Rebecca Mason**

Things were not going according to plan and Jimmy's sudden "it's close" comment wasn't helping me any. I held the harness close to me, trying to ignore how gross it felt in my hands.

"What's close?" Gabe asked and I knew he was trying hard not to lose it.

"T-the…Overlord…it's close by."

Overlords…I didn't have to dig far into my memory for that one. Those things were terrifying, at least from what the textbooks showed of them. Tall and thin, with fish-like heads. And they were the big bosses who ordered the attack on Earth in the first place. "How close by?" I breathed, almost afraid of the answer.

"Couple of miles," Jimmy whispered back. "That way." He pointed. We watched as the alarm technicians emerged from their van and went into the building, then broke off in a mad dash from the place.

"How can you be so sure where it is?" Gabe asked. We'd gotten a good distance from the building, out of sight at least, and were now walking aimlessly in the dark with only Jimmy's senses to guide us.

"I can feel it," Jimmy replied. "They give off a communication frequency. It's hard for me to hear from far away but it has to be close. The signal's strong."

"How many?" I asked. One Overlord was bad enough but if there were multiple Overlords we were all screwed.

"I can only hear one," he replied, much to my relief.

"What's it saying?"

Jimmy stopped and shut his eyes, like he was focusing. "I-it's…it's hard to tell…it sounds like it's trying to communicate with someone."

Gabe shot me a worried glance. "Like a fleet? "

He frowned for a moment and then his eyes snapped open, green pupils dilating for a moment. His breathing became shallow and he started gasping for breath.

"Jimmy!" I was at his side in seconds, propping my cousin up as he slumped over. He seemed to regain his composure midway. "What the hell just happened?"

He looked pale and shaken. "I-I…I don't know," he said, running a hand through his sandy hair. "Just…felt short of breath for a second." But he still looked terrified.

"You good now?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm…I'm fine. Let's…let's just keep moving."

I nodded, letting his arm go and he pressed onward, Gabe and I trailing after him. I turned to my brother. His brows were furrowed together beneath his dark hair. I couldn't help but think he looked just like Dad, same profile, same sort of expression. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He sighed. "Nothing."

I nudged him. "No seriously, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," he replied, letting his feet drag across the pavement as we walked. His gaze shifted to Jimmy's back a few feet ahead of us. "I don't think he's telling us the whole truth."

"Who? Jimmy?" The thought hadn't really occurred to me. After all, why wouldn't he tell us the whole truth? But my brother had a point. Something wasn't adding up. Why would he just double over like that unless something was wrong. Seriously wrong. But it was apparent that he wasn't going to say anything. "Maybe," I mused aloud. "But I think he'd tell us if we should be worried. " He nodded but I knew that he wasn't convinced.

We walked until the sun was rising over the trees. The light filtering through the leaves made weird shadows on the pavement and I was starting to feel tired. Gabe's watch read six thirty and for the first time I was worrying about what Mom and Dad would do to us once they found out we were missing. "How much further?" I asked, suddenly feeling the urgency of the situation. If we didn't hurry up, we risked being found. And if we were found, we sure as hell wouldn't be getting a second chance. Our dads would go and they would probably die.

"We're here," he replied, putting out a hand to stop the two of us. We stared at the place, an old auto repair shop with rusted hulks and old gas pumps outside. The whole thing looked like a creepy set out of a horror movie.

"In there?" Gabe asked incredulously. Jimmy nodded.

"You sure?"

He nodded again. "The frequency is coming from in there."

I wet my lips nervously and looked uneasily to Gabe. Slowly, he held the harness up. It wasn't like the orange, glowing one that woman Karen had. It was lifeless and brown and obviously dead. But we only needed them to get in.

"How are we supposed to put these things on?" I asked, spinning my around end-over-end, trying to figure out a way.

"Belt," Jimmy answered, tugging his own off and letting his jeans sag a little. He secured the belt around the thing and then attached it all to his waist. It didn't look to obvious against his black t-shirt. Gabe and I followed suit and soon we looked like three harnessed kids. Except perhaps a little livelier.

"Just act emotionless," Jimmy told us. "Like you don't think or feel."

"Gabe's halfway there!" I quipped, causing him to smack my shoulder. Jimmy hushed us, pointing at the garage entrance. We crept forward slowly and I could hear my heart pumping in my ears. Whatever fatigue I'd felt earlier was wiped out in a flood of adrenaline. We were silent, serious. Jimmy led the way around the back and gently tested the door. It gave easily and he beckoned us inside.

The smell of gasoline and motor oil hit me, a heady mixture that wasn't helped by the musty odor of the place overall. It was dark, save for occasional movements out on the shop floor. We found ourselves standing in the middle of what must have been the store. There was an old, cobweb-infested cash register and some very dusty merchandise. The place looked like it hadn't been inhabited since before the first invasion.

"Where to now?" I whispered as softly as I could.

"The Overlord's outside," he told us. "At the side of the building."

"Did it hear us?" Gabe asked, a panicked look in his eye.

"I don't think so…he hasn't indicated it yet, anyway."

"So where is everyone else?" I asked, making my way toward the door that led to the repair shop.

"There's some more harnessed kids in there," Jimmy replied, closing his eyes and focusing. "No skitters though, that's good."

"Is Uncle Matt in there?"

"Not sure. Only one way to find out…"

He pushed the door open slowly, quietly and we slipped into the garage. The smell was even stronger here. There was scrap metal piled up everywhere but the center of the floor remained free of any debris. And there, in the center, we saw a curly-haired head. Uncle Matt!

I resisted the urge to cry out because all around him were kids around our age, all with those glowing, orange things on their backs. And if Jimmy only had a fraction of a harnessed kid's ability, then these were some serious powerhouses. We wouldn't stand a chance. We ducked behind a pile of scrap metal to observe and think something out.

"What do we do?" Gabe asked urgently.

"We have to figure out a distraction of some kind," I replied, a plan already formulating in my head.

I picked up an oil can off the ground and hurled it through the open shop door, crouching further back into the shadows as the harnessed kids filed past to investigate. Thinking quickly, Jimmy leapt up and shut the door softly, leaning against it. "It won't hold them long," he warned.

Gabe and I rushed forward to Uncle Matt. He was unconscious and he looked pretty beat up. His lips were split and swollen and he had two black eyes. I tried to rouse him without any luck.

There was a pounding on the door. "Guys!" Jimmy called. "Hurry up!"

"We don't have time, grab his legs!" Gabe complied and I grabbed Uncle Matt's arms. We hoisted him off and took off running for the open garage door. "Let's go!"

Jimmy darted off the door and it flew open a few seconds later, the kids filing through, their faces blank. We didn't stop until we made it out of the garage. I smiled a little and turned to Jimmy triumphantly. Only…he didn't look the same anymore.

"I am impressed," he said in a voice that was his and at the same time…wasn't. "I did not expect you children to make it this far."

"Jimmy?" Gabe asked fearfully.

"Jimmy cannot hear you at the moment." And then, looming over us, was the horrific form of an Overlord…

* * *

**Chapter 4: Ben Mason**

I couldn't believe it. My son was missing. My son. Just gone. And he'd left a note, too, which meant he had disappeared knowingly. But maybe not of his own accord. I refused to believe that he had just snuck off with friends. That wasn't like him at all. Something must have happened to him. And with all the weird things I've been feeling lately, it would have made some sense. "Dammit!" I cursed myself. "Alex, what are we going to do?" I turned to face my wife as she walked around the kitchen, trying to keep her hands busy by straightening and re-straightening everything. It was her nervous habit.

"Try to relax," she advised, but the shaking in her voice was too obvious. "I'm sure it's nothing…we called the police. I'm sure they'll find them soon." _That was a joke. The police had so much to worry about already. A kid missing for a few hours wouldn't raise any alarm bells. _

"And if they don't?" I banged my fist against the kitchen table. "We should've been more careful!" God, I felt so useless just sitting there, waiting. I should have known something like this was bound to happen. Jimmy's inherited some of my abilities, why did I think that the Overlords wouldn't pick up on that?

"This isn't your fault, Ben," Alex chided, sitting down across from me. "We couldn't have known something like this was going to happen."

A motorcycle engine outside interrupted us and I leapt from the chair to answer the door. My brother was just coming up the drive. "Thank God you're here!"

Hal strode in quickly. Alex offered him a brief hug before he sat down in the living room. "Where do you think he might've gone? Where they might have gone."

"You think they're together?"

"I'm damn sure of it," Hal replied. "It's not just some coincidence. They took Matt, Dad's missing…"

I froze. "What?"

Hal straightened up. "You didn't know? Karen didn't tell you?"

I shook my head quickly. "You've been in contact with Karen?"

A look of alarm crossed my brother's face. "She showed up at our house! Anne told us she showed up at theirs too!"

Alex glanced to me worriedly. They were intentionally trying to keep me out of the loop!

"They're coming back, she said."

"I know," I replied softly, regretting it the second a look of confusion played on Hal's face.

"What do you mean you know?" he sputtered. "You knew and you didn't say anything?"

"It's not that! It's just that…" I sighed. _It's just that I didn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it_. "We'll talk about that later. Right now, we need to focus on finding Jimmy and Rebecca and Gabe."

He didn't look pleased but he agreed anyway. "If the aliens took Matt and Dad, maybe they took the kids too."

"Or they went looking for them."

"How would they know that they were missing in the first place?" Hal countered.

"Wouldn't be the first time Jimmy's heard something he wasn't supposed to. Maybe one of your kids overheard Karen talking to you and decided to launch a rescue mission."

Hal shook his head. "I don't think so…my kids wouldn't do something like that…Do you think you could find them with your…you know, 'powers?'"

"There's a number of frequencies nearby," I responded. "I don't know which one to hone in on and they're drowning out Jimmy's signal."

"It's a start," my brother answered, hopping up and heading for the door. "Just…hone in on the closest one and we'll work our way out from there."

"What do I do in the meantime?" Alex asked.

My brother paused and looked to me pointedly. "Well ever since Karen told us the aliens might be coming back, we've been trying to organize the 2nd Mass leaders again. Call Maggie, maybe you can help out." Alex nodded and came to the door.

"Be careful, Ben," she advised, kissing me goodbye.

"I will."

It must have been nearly seven-thirty when we rode out. The nearest frequency was about four miles away, no problem given the lack of any real traffic. I knew Hal was mad at me. I should've said something sooner but…it was just too impossible to believe. We'd pushed those bastards off of our planet years ago. I didn't want to think that they'd come back. I didn't want to think about what it might mean for me. For my family. And I didn't want to think about what it might mean for Jimmy. I was a product of the invasion. I lost some of the best years of my life. And my son was just now approaching that age. I didn't want to let it happen to him, too.

As we approached the spot, located on an all-but-abandoned road, I suddenly stopped. Hal stopped behind me.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I didn't answer. My head was pounding and I nearly collapsed off the motorcycle. The feeling of pain ripped through me as the shrill sound of the frequency overtook all my senses. I gripped my head tightly, falling to my knees. "Overlord…" I gritted out. "It's close…" Hal looked up and froze. I followed his gaze and saw something I really didn't want to see.

There, in front of a service shop, was an Overlord. And he was standing over my son, my niece, and my nephew.

The signal weakened. Jimmy spoke and I instantly realized what was going on. "Take one more step and I will not hesitate to kill them all." I had hoped that this wouldn't happen. I had hoped and prayed with all my soul. He had inherited a lot of traits from me, not just in looks but also in terms of harness abilities. But the one thing I'd always hoped was that those things wouldn't be able to invade his mind. And now they had.

"Let them go!" I managed. The Overlord turned to face me.

"Come with me, Ben Mason, and your son will be allowed to live."

"What do you want from us?" Hal shouted to the behemoth. He was panicking, I could tell. If he moved, the thing was likely to kill the kids and Matt too. He was fighting every urge to lunge at the damn thing.

"In due time, you shall find out," Jimmy replied for the monster. A second later, my son was on the ground, writhing in pain. I shot forward only to fall to my knees seconds later as the Overlord wormed its way into my mind. And then suddenly…it all stopped. Two shots rang out. I looked up as Hal rushed over to me and helped me up. I wasn't sure if I was seeing things but the Overlord was doubled over, lying in a pool of purple-tinted blood. And there, helping Jimmy up was…

"_Dad_?"

* * *

**A/N: Tom's back! Whoopee! In any event, I hope to garner some more reviews this time around. Was the notification feature broken or something because I was severely disappointed by lack of response on this one and on 'Keep Your Eyes Open.' I encourage (implore) any and all of you to review this now. I'll consider doing backflips and doling out cookies if that's what it takes! Wow…I sound desperate. In any event, hope you liked this chapter. I might continue…if you guys want me to. REVIEW!**

**Musical playlist thingy:**

**-Black Sheep—Metric  
-Grow Up –Metric  
-Combat Baby—Metric **

**I like Metric :) Will you review now? **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: 'Dup everybody! I'm back with yet another chapter for you to digest. I'm so happy with how well-received this story has been so far. It encourages me to keep writing and keep posting, so please don't stop the reviews! This chapter picks up back with the rest of the 2****nd**** Mass, with our Mason men making an appearance later. I thought I'd let the rest of **_**that **_**sequence play out off-screen so-to-speak and have them fill the other characters in (this way I don't have to repeat the story twice!) In any event, I'm slowly going to start bringing in new characters (starting with this chapter). There shouldn't be too many to keep track of, but just a fair warning! So without further ado…the story continues!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Maggie Mason  
**_Brief author's interruption: I said earlier that I wouldn't be bringing Maggie's POV back for a while but I changed my mind. I only plan to write from a specific set of POVs so there weren't many options for me given the way I wanted to play it. Hopefully you won't mind too much!_

The Tower was crowded with tourists, just like any other day in the summer. The group of us was lost in the crowd that was there to celebrate human spirit, freedom, independence. We were there for a whole other reason—to prepare against the collapse of those very same virtues. We were a relatively small group compared to the massive tour groups passing through: me, Lourdes, Dai, Anthony, Anne, and Alexandra.

We passed the small wall erected by the Tower's base, the names of all the members of the Massachusetts militias who had died in the fighting inscribed in gold lettering. My eyes raked over _James Boland _briefly as I tried to focus on what was being said. The name only served to remind me that my nephew—his namesake—was missing out there. And my children were missing with him.

"…uh-uh," Anthony was stating, shaking his head. He looked good, relatively unchanged since we'd last seen one another. His head was still shaved and I was acutely aware that he must be forty-five by now. The only indications of the passage of time were the laugh lines creasing around his eyes. "No way the aliens are coming back, we kicked their asses the first time."

Lourdes shook her head ruefully. "I wish that were the case…but think about it—they just left without any real reason. Why would they do that unless they were coming back? And why would Karen just show up at the Masons' door and say something like that?"

"Misinformation," Dai put in. His face had become more weather-beaten with age, his hair thinning out a bit towards the back. His expression was still serious and pensive, but he hadn't changed too much either. "What we should be asking is why Karen _would _show up at the Masons' door and say something."

I found myself trying to defend the idea that the aliens were returning. "To trap us," I replied. They looked to me, almost like they'd forgotten I'd even been there. Who could blame them, really? I hadn't said much since we first arrived. "Hal, Ben, Tom…they were all high-ranking members of the 2nd Mass. Who's to say a similar thing hasn't happened across the country? If they really wanted to take over our planet, wouldn't it make sense to eliminate the obvious threat and then deal with the remaining people?"

"Cut off the head and the body's useless," Anne piped, offering me a half-smile to let me know my theory was well understood. She brushed some of her gray-tinged hair from her face and tied it into a ponytail behind her, staring around at the Tower and the surrounding memorials. There was a glint in her eye, like she was remembering something and her normally upbeat features turned downward, making the tired creases in her face more apparent. "Can you imagine? It might happen all over again…"

"The important thing is to make sure it doesn't," I added resolutely.

"And how do we do that?" my sister-in-law asked, biting her lip. Alex had lost her entire family in the aftermath of the first invasion and I could tell that the outcome of a second one played heavily on her mind.

"Organized resistance," I said softly. "Just like the first time."

"Good luck," Anthony replied. "I'm barely convinced, let alone millions of people worldwide."

Lourdes spoke up now, her expression cloudy. "We tell everyone we can…if they don't believe us then we leave them. There's nothing else we can do."

"You mean…knowingly let those people die?" Alex asked, appalled.

"What else can we do?" Lourdes replied. It was clear she didn't like it anymore than the rest of us did. "We don't have proof, we can't _make _them believe us…" She began pushing the baby stroller back and forth, her sleeping son's head lolling to one side with the gentle motion.

"We'll never get enough people to join our cause," Dai said dejectedly. As much as I wanted to tell him he was wrong, I knew he was most likely correct. Who would believe us? Just because we said some harnessed girl showed up at our door? The harnessed kids hadn't been seen in years and it was largely concluded that the Overlords took them off the planet in their retreat. In fact, Ben often asserted that the Overlords were still here but I'd never seen them. His book claimed that anyone who was once harnessed could feel them, but only a few people ever came forward to say they did. Most people pretended to problem never happened and that it therefore couldn't exist now. We'd be lucky to get a dozen people on our side. And you can't fight a war with only a dozen people, no matter how hard you try.

"Start with friends, family, coworkers…Anthony, you have a wife, right?" Anne asked, trying to give a pep-talk.

Anthony shook his head. "Robyn left…didn't work out."

Her face fell. "I'm sorry…last I heard you'd gotten married."

"Nah, it's good," he brightened. "I got a friend, though. He's my partner in the force. I _know _he'd be with us if we were gonna fight another war."

"Great," Anne replied. "Dai, you still run that bar?" He nodded. "Maybe you could chat up some patrons or something, see if any of them would help us…"

"It's a long shot," he admitted. "But I think I have a few regular patrons who might get drunk enough to agree to something like that."

"It's a start. Lourdes?"

The doctor shook her head. "The people I work with are all so afraid," she said, looking down at the toddler in the stroller. "I think they'd laugh at me if I told them."

"Same," Alex piped. "It's ironic—I work at a lab full of scientists who study aliens and yet if I asked them if they thought a second invasion was possible I guarantee they'd say no."

"Ditto," I finally spoke up, thinking to all the board members sitting in a conference room, laughing at me for even suggesting it. "They'd probably fire me or ask me to get an evaluation or something…" Not that I'd mind being fired, really. Office life never suited me much. I did it because I couldn't sit still at home, doing nothing. But now, it sounded nice. Hal told me I should quit if it wasn't fulfilling. He'd make enough to support us. And I'd have more time with our kids. Our kids who were still missing. I checked my phone nervously, praying there would be a message from Hal on it. There wasn't.

Anne mused. "Tom would help us…if he were here. I don't know any friends or coworkers who would be able to help either, though." Anne ran a private practice, a pediatrics office. It was a pretty small one, but a good one nonetheless. The problem was, none of us really knew enough people or had enough connections to get a group together. We'd need some concrete evidence that would make people believe us. I jumped when my phone started vibrating.

"Uh…I need to answer this." I stepped away from the others before picking up Hal's phone call. "Hal," I answered urgently. "Please tell me you found them."

"They're here with me," he answered. I heard a motorcycle starting up in the background.

"Oh thank God," I breathed, relief washing over me. "Where were they."

"It's…a long story. I'll tell you when we get to you guys. Where are you?"

"By the Tower," I replied.

He hesitated. "Maggie…can you get everyone someplace more…private?"

"Hal, what's wrong?"

"You'll see. But it can't be someplace public or it'll cause a panic. Just…get them all over to our house."

I frowned. Whatever it was, I knew it had to be important. "Okay…I'll see you in a bit." We hung up and I rejoined the others.

"…what if we reached out to Pope?" It was Dai talking. Anne and Lourdes cringed at the name.

Anthony laughed. "Why the hell would John come back? He's having the time of his life in Costa Rica—strip clubs, money, fast cars…he's living it up!"

I shook my head. After the war ended, Pope had gone off in pursuit of gambling, drugs, women, and other forms of debauchery. Costa Rica had been the perfect place for a con like him. But I _knew _him. "If he finds out there's a chance to kill aliens, he'll come crawling back." I looked around for a moment, trying to ensure nobody heard us. "Now…I just talked to Hal. Something's come up. I don't know what but he wants us to meet back at our place. He's got the kids with him." I heard Alex breathe out a huge sigh of relief.

Lourdes bit her lip and looked around the circle. "You guys good with that?" There was universal consent. She nodded to me. "Sounds like a plan."

The drive home was a short one as I directed Lourdes to our house. I could feel my palms starting to sweat, my heartbeat increasing as she steered her car up our driveway. We had barely gotten inside before I heard the motorcycles drawing up outside. The whole group of us surged forward, out of the door and out to the street to greet them. I stopped halfway down the walk, surprised. Hal was there, Rebecca and Gabe were there, Ben was there, Jimmy was there but so was…Tom? And someone else…?

* * *

**Chapter 5: Jimmy Mason**

It was the scariest, most painful thing I've ever felt, having my mind just…taken from me without my consent. It had been building. I had _felt _it building and I'd said nothing. I was just so, _so _scary. It wasn't normal. It started with this dull thudding that just got sharper and sharper as we got closer and closer. I could _feel _the Overlord. I could _feel _him working his way into my consciousness and I tried hard to push him out. I thought I'd won but as we left that building, he finally broke my last defense, my last wall that I'd put up specifically to keep him out. And I could feel his thoughts, too. He was tired. He hadn't been expecting how difficult it was to invade my mind but my weaker form of the harness' power meant he had to exert a ton of effort. He was mentally drained by the time he finally broke in.

I could still see out of my own eyes, could still process what was going on around me. And yet I was trapped in my own head, unable to do anything. I was speaking words that I didn't want to and the look of horror in my dad's eyes said everything. And then, just like that, it all ended, only to be replaced by this entirely different pain as I dropped to the floor. It felt like something was ripping me apart, burning me from inside. I could taste blood bubbling up in my mouth as the Overlord abandoned my mind and went for my dad's instead. And that's when I heard the gunshots and a spasm of panicked frequency erupted. My ears were ringing as I looked up and saw my granddad smiling at me, helping me up.

But I knew now. I knew how far away they were and we didn't have a lot of time. I _knew _what their plan was, or at least a piece of it. They wanted kids, people my age. They wanted us as their new workforce. Something had happened to the skitters. I didn't know what, the Overlord had blocked that access in his mind. They were coming here to take people like me, and then they were going to waste the planet.

I hopped off of dad's bike as soon as we drew up to Uncle Hal's place. My mom launched herself off the porch, hugging me close. I knew she'd been crying and I felt bad. She must have been so afraid. But at the same time I _had _to do it. Masons aren't known to just sit around and let things take their course. I wasn't prepared to let my uncle die, nor would I let my dad walk into a trap. I _had _to do it. And I think the Overlord picked up on this, too. Only he wasn't a problem anymore. The body was still lying outside the service station.

I could feel all the eyes on me—so many people I didn't recognize but still knew somehow. I knew the large, dark man was Anthony. Dad's description had been accurate—the scar running down his face, the good-natured expression, that look that told you he was kind-hearted but wouldn't be scared to beat you up if you crossed him. I knew the man with the thinning hair and the hard look was Dai, who else could it be? Of course I recognized my grandmother, who was now making her way down the walk to scold Granddad. And the slim, dark-haired woman with the baby had to be Lourdes. I knew them all, even if they didn't know me. It was comforting that none of them looked angry, but I knew as soon as we were alone Mom and Dad would probably go off on me. It didn't matter. I did what I'd set out to do.

Aunt Maggie eyed Rebecca and Gabe with a stern expression, one of those looks that only mothers seem to have—the one that communicates love and inspires fear all at once. Gabe hung his head as he trudged along behind me but Rebecca was eyeing her mother almost defiantly. We entered the house quietly and retreated to the kitchen so that the 'adults' could have their talk, but I tuned in to what they were saying.

The first words I heard were spoken to Uncle Matt. He'd come to and was groggily making his way up the steps. It was Lourdes talking. "Sit down," she advised. "Let me take a look at those bruises."

"I'm fine," Uncle Matt replied. "Worry about him."

I knew who _him _was. There was murmuring from the others, though. He was a harnessed kid. After Granddad killed the Overlord he launched himself at us. Granddad slugged him over the head with the butt of his gun and took him with us. It was good idea. These kids had tons of knowledge about what was going on and if we could remove the harness, he could tell us. Not to mention convince the world that the aliens really were coming back. After all, everyone was convinced that the harnessed kids had been taken off Earth when the aliens left. Even the once-harnessed kids who could _feel _them said they were gone, if only just to fit in. Only a handful of people like my dad tried to convince everyone of the truth and while it sold books, it didn't convince very many people. But bring in a freshly unharnessed kid? That would change everything. We didn't have much time, though.

"What the…?" Lourdes was clearly confused.

"I'll explain later," Uncle Hal said, carrying the kid in. "Right now we need to get this harness off him."

"I-I can't! I don't have the proper equipment or medicines!"

"Then we need to find someplace that does," Uncle Hal grunted. "And quickly. He puts up a hell of a fight when he's awake."

"Stick him in my car," Lourdes replied. "I'll take him to the hospital but I'm going to need a couple of hands to help out."

"I'll go," Grandma offered.

"Take Rebecca," Uncle Hal suggested. "We need to talk to everyone else."

Lourdes entered the kitchen moments later. I pretended not to have been listening and relaying everything to my cousins. "Rebecca? I'm Dr. Delgado. Can I borrow you for a bit? I'll explain on the way."

Rebecca nodded slowly, rising. I think she was just relieved that she wouldn't have to be home for a while, knowing full well that she'd have to face her mother. I couldn't blame her. The group left and I glanced at Gabe. He shrugged, so I returned to eavesdropping.

"…we can hopefully convince others that the aliens really are coming back," I heard my dad saying. "Think about it—if we put him on the news or something, people will find out. It's hard to argue with a kid who was just unharnessed."

_He had no idea. He had no idea how close this invasion was. _

I stopped listening after that. I knew I had to warn them but…I didn't want to interrupt either. When these beasts finally showed up, we'd need the organization. I turned to talk to Gabe but he wasn't looking up, just sitting at the table tracing patterns nervously with his fingers. I heard shuffling eventually, like people were getting ready to leave the house and I heard footsteps heading our way.

"Ben?" Mom's voice was close. "Go easy on him? He's just trying to make you proud."

"Yeah," Dad replied, entering the room now. "Jimmy? Can I talk to you?"

"Go ahead," I said when we got outside, away from everyone else. "Lay it on me. Tell me how reckless and irresponsible I was."

"No," Dad shook his head, sitting down beside me on the front steps. "What you said is true but…" he looked to the street, as if searching the pavement for an answer. "That's not…that's not what I wanted to say to you." He sighed, then turned to look at me. "Jimmy, you know I saw a lot during the War, right?"

I nodded my head, not quite sure where he was going with this.

"I mean, I saw people die but…seeing that Overlord in your head like that, doing those things to you…" he took in a breath and for a moment it looked like he was ready to cry. "That was the scariest moment of my whole life. I've seen…terrible things, I've lost a lot of people, Jimmy, but…but you're my son. And I love you more than anything in the world so…to see that happening," he drew in a breath and I could feel how afraid he had been. Call it a strange father-son connection but I could actually almost _feel _his thoughts, like they were tangible things. It happens whenever he's feeling strong emotion. The tears were stinging the backs of my eyes.

"I thought I might lose you," Dad finally concluded. "And I don't know what I'd do if that happened. But…I also saw how far you'd made it. You _had _Matt out of that building—the three of you. You risked so much back there for your family and I realized…when I was your age I was doing the same thing." He smiled weakly now, I guess lost in some memory. "I've been trying so hard to make sure you didn't have to do that and…I guess I never noticed how much you've grown up." He smiled to me now, stronger than before. "I'm proud of you." He paused before adding, "You're still grounded. But I'm proud of you."

I smiled then, pushing back the tears. I felt like I should say something like 'I love you' but a thought hit me suddenly. "Dad…when that Overlord invaded my head…I found stuff out."

"Like what?" Dad asked, suddenly serious.

"The aliens aren't waiting around, Dad. They're coming. _Tonight_."

"What? How do you know?" He was rising now, ready to dash back inside.

"He was trying to contact his fleet when we got there. They're in our solar system and they're going to start the bombings soon."

He cursed, nodded to me quickly, and then dashed into the house. I sighed, collapsing back onto the steps. I should've said something. _I should've said something_.

* * *

**A/N: And you thought we'd reached a resolution! Nope, phase 2 is just starting. The aliens' plans have been accelerated and they're coming! Hide yo wife! Hide yo kids! So let me know what you thought of this chapter. What's next? Who's that mysterious harnessed kid that they brought back and how is he going to factor into this? How will people react to a second invasion? Will the 2****nd**** Mass even pull it together in time? Review and you'll soon know for sure! **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey again! Sorry I took so long to update but I had to retype this four times before I was satisfied with it. In any event, I want to thank all the readers again because you guys keep me motivated. Rock on, ya'll! Now I realize that SPOILER ALERT Dai died in the season finale yesterday but I don't want to write him out of this so I'll leave him alive. AU ain't too bad and this is as AU as possible so…yeah. Thoughts on the finale? I'd love to chat with you guys about it, there's so much that they can do with season 3 now! As for Anne and Tom's baby…well that'll come up later in this story too (not this chapter). This chapter is considerably longer than the rest (hopefully you don't mind) because of the amount of action I really need to set up this chapter. There's three point-of-view changes and we get some MORE insight on the harness-mythology. And one or two new characters. I'd dearly love the reviews :)**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Gabe Mason**

"Gabriel Mason," Mom's voice was cold, a little angry sounding as she stepped into the kitchen and sat down across from me. "Would you like to tell me what you and your sister were thinking?" I winced at her tone and envied Rebecca for having escaped to help Grandma and the other doctor.

This was a rare occurrence for me—getting into trouble. Usually it's Rebecca who gets the scolding from my parents for sneaking out or lying or forgoing chores but I could tell that Mom was very, _very _disappointed. And who could blame her, really? We weren't thinking and she was probably worried sick. I had never seen her this frantic looking before, even though I was right in front of her now and no longer missing.

"W-we…we were trying to help."

"By giving me a heart attack? By making your dad and uncle go out there to get you?"

"We would have made it," I defended, lying outright. We most certainly would _not _have made it, I was fairly sure of that.

"Really?" Mom's eyes were scrutinizing me closely now. She's _way _too good at that—even when we were little she could always tell when we were lying. "Because I'm hearing an entirely different story from your father and from Ben…"

"It was Rebecca's idea," I finally blurted, shutting my eyes quickly and wishing I could take it all back.

Mom shook her head. "Gabe, I'm talking to you right now." The anger had drained from her voice, replaced with this tired sort of sadness. "I don't care if it was your sister's idea, you had a hand in it and you're just as responsible. I could have lost you today!"

"But you didn't," I pointed out, feeling really guilty. I had never seen my mother like this before, frazzled and close to tears.

"That doesn't matter, Gabe! I could have! I could have lost you both! Not to mention your father…I could have lost my whole family today." Those were definitely tears in her eyes and I was all the more surprised because my mother is _not _a crier.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I finally said softly. She looked at me again, a different, motherly look on her face now and I understood how scared she really was. "But," I added tentatively, "what's going to happen once they come?"

"We don't know when that will be," Mom answered tightly.

"Jimmy said he could hear their communications, that they're coming soon. Maybe even tonight. What then?"

Mom shook her head, a frown creasing her face. "We fight."

"And I'll fight too—"

"No!" I jumped with how sharp she said it. Her eyes were wide, almost panicked. "Absolutely not!"

_No? _So many feelings washed over me. I felt angry, disappointed. All this time I had been scared but now I really felt like I could do something. I wanted to do something. And my mother was telling me no? "Why not?" I challenged.

"Because I am not putting you or your sister at risk out there."

"And yet you'll gladly do it yourself?"

"Yes," Mom looked at me closely, her face completely serious. "I will gladly do it if it means you two _don't_."

"But Mom!"

"There's no room for negotiation here, Gabe. There's no way your dad and I are letting you two fight these things."

"But why _not_?" I slammed my hand against the table, feeling like a child, wincing at how immature my tone was.

"Because you're my kids," Mom snapped.

"I'm not a kid anymore!"

"You will _always _be my kids," she replied sharply.

"And that's exactly why we want to fight! That's exactly why we can!"

"No," she reiterated, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. "And that's final. I will _not _lose another child." And with that she got up and left the room, probably going to find my dad. I released a shaky breath. What did she mean by _another _child?

It was around two in the afternoon and I was sitting in my room, on the chair across the bed from my sister. I didn't meet her eyes, just watched as the kid lying in the bed breathed in and out slowly. It was so weird, seeing him asleep like a regular teenager. He looked around Rebecca's age but we couldn't be sure. He hadn't woken up yet.

"Did Mom talk to you yet?" I asked her.

"Nope," she shook her head. "I have a feeling she's gonna read me the riot act and then some once we're alone." Rebecca chewed her lip nervously. "Did she talk to you?"

"Yeah," I nodded. The words she spoke were still bouncing about in my head. Downstairs, I could hear our parents talking to Uncle Ben and some of the others.

"What did she say?"

"Usual," I shrugged. "Got on me for being irresponsible and putting people at risk…" My sister nodded. "So…uh…how was it, you know, taking his harness off?" I gestured to the kid presently unconscious on my bed.

"Not the best experience," she confessed.

"I thought you wanted to be a doctor?"

"I meant like a pediatrician, not…_that_." She proceeded to tell me how they had snuck into the hospital to avoid causing a panic. Dr. Delgado's coworker arranged for the equipment to be available. Rebecca described in graphic detail how she lifted the harness of the boy's back so that the doctor could burn away the harness. Now there were only spikes in his back, less than an inch in height. I could see on his neck the dry patches of skin, just like Uncle Ben had.

"He must be freshly harnessed," I murmured. "Otherwise he would've turned into something…freaky."

"I thought about that," my sister answered, resting her chin on her hand. "I wonder how long ago they got him? If his parents are waiting for him somewhere…"

_Parents. _"Hey, uh, Rebecca?" She looked at me. "Uh…earlier, when I was talking to Mom…" _How does one put this? _"She…she said she didn't want to lose _another _child. W-what did she mean by that?"

My sister perked up, looking seriously at me. "She never told you?"

_Told me what? _I shook my head.

"Gabe—" she was cut off when the boy started gasping for air. "Go and get Dr. Delgado or Grandma or _someone_! Hurry!"

I took off running, no longer thinking about what my mother's words to me were.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Rebecca Mason**

The kid was twitching and convulsing on the bed, gurgling almost, when Gabe returned with Dr. Delgado. I had been trying to keep the poor boy calm but I wasn't even sure if he was awake.

"Hold him down," Dr. Delgado commanded, just like she had in the back room of the hospital. We had him doped up on morphine to replace whatever the harness was pumping into him and Dr. Delgado said we would slowly start scaling back on the drug. See, whatever the harness puts into these kids has fatal withdrawal symptoms but not morphine. Morphine won't kill you in withdrawal unless you've got additional problems so we substitute harness-drugs with the morphine and wean them off of it that way. At least that's how Dr. Delgado explained it and it made sense if I thought back to bio and chemistry. I did my best but it was hard to keep him still and Gabe had to help.

"We can start scaling back on the drugs now," Dr. Delgado explained as she inserted a new drip full of the stuff. "But we can't take him off of it fully for a while yet. I don't have enough anesthesia to keep him under, though." She was looking around for a solution.

"Don't bother," I said. "I'll watch him." I wasn't exactly sure _why _I volunteered to keep an eye on this kid. For all I knew he was dangerous. But there was something fascinating about him, about his whole predicament. And besides, if anyone was going to have a shot of making meaningful contact with him, it was someone his own age.

"Are you sure?" the doctor asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded. Gabe turned to me, wide-eyed. "I'll be fine."

She sighed. "If you're sure…just be careful, okay? I'll keep him tied down to the bed but shout if you need someone."

"I will."

"I'll stay too," my brother piped.

"No," I cut in sharply. "I'll do it myself."

"Rebecca, you stand a better chance if you have someone else with you!" Gabe reasoned. But I didn't want him to bother this kid with constant questions and prying like he tended to do. He would probably be scared, disoriented, and Gabe getting in his face and grilling him probably wouldn't help matters.

"I'll be fine," I gritted out. "And they may need you elsewhere." He paused and I realized I'd hooked him. He hadn't considered it before but if there was promise of him being useful elsewhere, he wouldn't think twice about leaving me to guard some boy strapped down to a bed. Never mind the fact that they'd probably only allow him to observe. If that.

"I'm not sure," Dr. Delgado was saying.

"No, she's right," Gabe admitted. "I'd be more useful doing something else." I felt bad for the medic as she sighed and shrugged helplessly, warned me again to use caution, and then reluctantly departed.

"If you're all set here, I'm going to head back downstairs," the doctor told me. I nodded and returned to sitting by the door, watching the boy stir from time-to-time. He was kind of handsome—in a dangerous, former alien-agent way. His dark hair was matted down and caked with dirt and his skin was almost grey with the amount of grime. The bed sheets were definitely write-offs.

I could hear the conversation going on downstairs through the air vent in Gabe's room. My dad was talking at the moment.

"…we put this kid on the news they'll _have _to believe us. There's a real invasion coming and he'll probably know something about it."

"Don't forget," Uncle Ben's voice joined in. "Previously-harnessed people can feel it, too but not one of them has spoken up. They're afraid to. What makes you think this kid will be any different?"

"We have a shot here," Granddad spoke. "How would he know that he should be afraid to speak up?"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Dr. Delgado said. "He's only just recovering from the operation, if you stick a camera and a microphone in his face he'll only be confused."

"We don't have a lot of options," a deep, booming male voice said. I placed it as Anthony's. "Your son's saying the invasion is happening tonight?"

"That's what he said," Uncle Ben replied.

"And you agree?"

"I-I…don't really know. I know they're coming and they're close, but I couldn't tap into their thoughts—he didn't fully invade my mind."

"What makes you think the media will even be interested in this boy?" I heard Aunt Alex ask.

"It's the media," Dad answered flatly. "Freshly de-harnessed kid? That's pretty big news, they'll be interested."

"What makes you so sure this information Jimmy has is reliable?" A new voice was speaking now, likely Dai.

"I trust him," my uncle replied simply.

"It's not a question of if we trust _him _but if we trust _them_. What if they're misleading us? "

I frowned as the thought occurred to me. What _if _they were misleading us? What if they _wanted _Jimmy to think the invasion was happening tonight to cause a panic? If we were panicking it would certainly make their job a bit easier. _No. No they're coming. They're coming tonight. _

There were steps on the stairs approaching the room and I jumped up from the air vent, returning to my seat and trying to act like I'd just been sitting there the whole time.

"No!" Dr. Delgado's voice. "He's not recovered yet, I don't want you in there bothering him! He may not even be awake! _Hal! _Are you even listening to me?" I'd never heard her sound so…angry. Maybe annoyed.

Dad entered the room grinning from ear-to-ear, the considerably-smaller doctor following him in, an outraged expression on her face.

"See?" she gestured forcefully to the bed. "He hasn't woken up yet, just leave him alone! And I swear if you called those reporters…"

"Rebecca?" Dad pointedly ignored the poor doctor. "Mind stepping out for a minute?"

I swallowed. "Um…I'd rather stay." I didn't expect him to just shrug and let me hang around but that's exactly what he did.

"He should be awake soon, right?"

"I don't know!" Dr. Delgado snapped.

My father furrowed his brow. "Well he better be. We're going to have reporters swarming this place in less than an hour, I want to know everything we can about him before that." The boy stirred again and the doctor moved to his bedside to check him out.

"He's coming to," she said after a moment. "Let _me _talk, please?"

Dad shrugged and held up his hands in surrender. "Be my guest." We waited for a few tense minutes before the boy's eyes finally snapped open, a clear shade of bluish-green. He let out a short, panicked breath and then tried to sit up, looking panicked when he realized he was tied down to the bed.

"W-what's happening?" he asked, fear obviously having overtaken him.

"Easy," Dr. Delgado soothed, putting a hand on his forehead and brushing away some of his hair. "Calm down, you're fine. I'm Dr. Delgado. You're safe."

"Where am I?"

"You're safe," she repeated. "We took the harness off your back."

"Why am I strapped down?" he asked, lying flat on his back.

"Just a precaution, I'll undo the belts if you just stay put, okay. I don't want you to hurt yourself, got it?"

He nodded and she carefully undid the assortment of belts that we'd used to secure him. "This is Hal Mason," she indicated my father. "And that's his daughter Rebecca," she indicated me and I nodded dumbly. "We just have a few questions to ask you and we need you to answer them as best as you can, alright?" The boy nodded again.

"Can you start by telling me your name?"

He paused, let out a breath as if deep in thought. "Jesse," he finally said. "Jesse Norcutt."

"Good, Jesse," Dr. Delgado encouraged. "How old are you?"

He stopped to think again. "S-seventeen," he answered.

"That's great, you're doing great. Jesse, what's the last thing you remember before being harnessed?"

"Running," he answered simply. "T-they were chasing me."

"And your family?"

"They were all killed." His words were flowing more, now, like he was suddenly remembering everything.

"Where are you from, Jesse?"

"South End. Dartmouth Place."

"Good, good," Dr. Delgado smiled. I noticed Dad frowning curiously.

"Tell me, Jesse," she asked quietly. "Do you know how long ago you were harnessed?"

He shook his head no.

"Okay…um, why don't you tell me what the last date you can remember is?"

"I don't know!"

"How about just a year?" she pressed.

He paused, screwed his eyes shut and then opened them again, looking about helplessly. "Twenty-thirteen," he finally answered. Everything froze in the room. _Everything_.

Dr. Delgado looked to my dad, the shock registering on their faces. "Twenty-thirteen, are you sure about that?" she asked him. Jesse nodded.

"W-what's today's date?" he asked hesitantly.

"July fourteenth…twenty-thirty."

I don't think I've ever seen a kid look so distressed before. "W-what happened to me?" he asked fearfully.

"I wish I could tell you, Jesse, I really do. But don't worry about that right now," Dr. Delgado told him. "What I need you to tell me next is what you know about the skitters. It's very important."

"Skitters?"

"Y-you're…guardians," she finally corrected.

"They're mostly dead," Jesse answered.

"Why?"

"Our…masters said they could not be trusted and executed most of them. There's only a handful remaining."

"Do you know what they're planning now? A re-invasion, perhaps?" Dad spoke up, clearly perplexed.

"Yes," Jesse said quietly. "They need new soldiers…they want all the kids. And then they're going to kill everyone else."

Dad nodded. "We think they might come tonight, is that true?"

The boy shrugged. "I suppose…our sense of time is different but…it makes sense, I guess. Our master was communicating with his fleet before you killed him." I was surprised there was no hostility in his tone, just fear. Uncle Ben told us most kids who get de-harnessed are angry with the people who freed them.

"That's all I need for now," my dad said. "Thanks for cooperating. Um…my daughter Rebecca will keep you company if you'd like," he nodded to me. Jesse looked at me mutely and slowly nodded his assent. "Lourdes…can I talk to you?" The doctor started after my dad.

"Get some rest if you can, Jesse," she advised. "I'll check on you in a bit."

The door shut behind them and the boy stared at me for a long minute. I could hear the voices just beyond the door.

"Can you tell me how it's possible?" my Dad was asking.

"I-I'm just as confused as you are," Dr. Delgado replied. "Prolonged exposure to the harness mutates the kids, sometimes beyond recognition. They lose all free thought…The only thing I can think of is that maybe they have more control over what these things do to them? Maybe they can…I don't know stop it from fully taking over them or something."

"But why would they do that?"

"I honestly have no clue…maybe Alex can offer more advice—she's a specialist. All I know is, he needs to rest. Especially if you're going to be sticking flashing lights and cameras in his face." The fading sound of footsteps on the stairs told me they left.

I stared at Jesse as he looked aimlessly out the window. I'd never seen a freshly de-harnessed kid before. Most of the once-harnessed people try to walk around living normal lives and they act no different from us.

"How old are you?" Jesse asked, not even looking at me as he said it.

"S-sixteen…"

"I guess I'm seventeen going on thirty-four," he let out a self-conscious laugh. "I-I don't understand though…how or why it happened." He was rambling now.

"Are they really coming back?" I asked him. I had to know. He turned to face me and there was a hint of worry or…something in his greenish-blue eyes.

"Yes…Rebecca, right?" I nodded. "They are coming back," he said.

"D-do you…want to go back to them?"

"No," he said after a pause. "T-the guardians were kind to us. They took care of us but…our Overlords were much crueler. They didn't care about us. I don't want to go back."

I let out a breath of relief. If the harnessed kids were displeased with their rulers then there was less chance of betrayal. "They want you to talk to the reporters when they get here," I told him. "We have to make sure the world is ready for a re-invasion."

"I'll do it," he set his jaw. A sly sort of grin overtook his features. "I want to stick it to those Overlords."

I nodded slowly. "Y-you should…probably rest. I'll be right outside if you need me."

* * *

**Chapter 6: Hal Mason**

I could tell Lourdes was annoyed with me for allowing the press to talk to the kid—Jesse—but we didn't have many alternatives. As I predicted, the media was all over the story, seeing the fresh holes in his spine and the newly liberated harness got them hooked and there was no faster way to spread the word that another invasion was going to happen. We _had _to be ready.

I have to hand it to the kid, he was very composed despite being half doped on morphine and having all the lights flashing in his eyes. He gave the best responses he could and by the time the reporters left we had guarantees that this would make the news ASAP. Resistance movements were going to start up, people would be ready, and even if they panicked there would be no surprise attacks like the first time. If these bastards wanted to take our planet, they weren't going to catch us unprepared.

We left the television on in the background as the word spread, plastered over every screen on every channel. There were people out in the streets, some of them panicking, others talking urgently to one another.

"I hope the panic we started pays off," Dai shook his head as he looked out the window.

"You don't think they're coming?" I challenged. They _were _coming. _Tonight_.

"I still think it's a bit odd," Dai replied. "Why would they just let him find out? The advantage of surprise is a lot more valuable…"

"Karen said they don't care anymore," I replied. "They're going to destroy everything and everyone once they get the kids…." I looked at Lourdes' baby, sleeping in his car seat. There was no way in hell I was going to allow anything to happen to kid. Not mine, not anybody's. " Where's Anthony?"

"He got called in to control the rioting downtown…"

I sighed. "It's coming. You'll see." I don't know…maybe I was more afraid that it _wasn't _coming tonight. How would that look? They'd call us crazy, probably try to kill us.

Alex entered quietly, looking nervous. "Anything I can do?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually I've been meaning to ask you something. In private," I pulled her aside. "Um…that boy Jesse?"

"Yeah?"

"When Lourdes and I were questioning him…well he basically said he's been harnessed for seventeen years. How is that possible, shouldn't the harness have mutated him?"

Alex frowned. "Yes…it should have. His appearance should have been altered after more than eight or nine months of wearing it…"

"Has this ever happened before?"

"Never," she answered. "But it's very interesting. You said he's been harnessed since the end-phase of the invasion?"

"That's right."

"I wonder…if maybe there was a kill-switch for the mutation."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well…when we were studying the harnesses, we noticed that one of our live examples also responded to frequencies similar to those used by the aliens for communicating. Sort of like…a remote control. I'm wondering if maybe there's a command that shuts down certain abilities of the harness. I just…can't figure out why they would need something like that built in."

I thought about it a moment and the advantages were innumerable, I decided. "Well if you look at it from a strategist stand-point, it makes sense. If the kids were mutated it would be obvious but if they could continue to do work without standing out, it would allow the Overlords to go undetected with their mission…"

"Like a disguise?" she asked. "Maybe…I would need time to study it, though. And a live specimen."

I shook my head helplessly. "I can't help you there. But thanks." Alex nodded and I went off to find Ben.

He was outside, talking to a group of riled-up neighbors who were panicking and clamoring for answers.

"We have strong reason to believe they're coming tonight," he was telling the crowd that had gathered.

"Can't you feel them? You said in your book that you can still feel them sometimes!" a voice shouted from the back.

"They're close," he answered. "But they aren't actively trying to communicate with me so it makes it difficult…The information we received is from someone whose mind was actively invaded by these aliens. He could access some of their thoughts."

"What are we supposed to do?" A man in the front row stepped up and started jostling him.

"Back it up," I shoved him off. Ben looked to me with a hint of annoyance. "We're gonna kick their asses," I answered his question. "But it's important to keep our heads once they get here. Groups like the 2nd Mass are going to be necessary so just stick close, bring as many supplies as you can and get ready. If you have guns or other weapons at home, now's the time to get 'em ready." The group slowly began to disperse.

"It's mayhem," Ben grumbled.

"We had no other choice," I reminded him. "Even if they're panicked, they're somewhat prepared and that's better than going in blind."

"I guess…"

"Did you talk to the harnessed kid yet?"

"No," Ben answered. "Been a bit busy."

"We're going to need a leader," I said, deciding to get to the point.

"I already asked Dad. He said he's too old for this stuff but he'll gladly give advice…"

"I didn't think he would go for it," I shook my head.

"What are you thinking?"

"I think," I finally stopped and turned to him. "That you and I should do it."

Ben floundered. "What? L-like…co-leaders or something? Hal, I can't do that! I don't know enough about—"

"You know more about these aliens than anyone. And between you and me we have enough experience to help them through just about anything," I interrupted. "I can't lead them alone and you can't either but…together we stand a chance."

"Hal, I don't know…"

"You _have _to, Ben," I urged.

"Fine," he finally agreed as we walked up the porch.

"Excuse me," a voice called and we both wheeled around. The woman standing before us was fairly young-looking, kind of tall, slim. She ran a hand through her blonde hair. "I'm looking for Ben Mason?" The accent was foreign…British? Or maybe Australian?

"T-that's me," Ben cleared his throat.

"Of course!" Recognition flashed in the woman's bluish-grey eyes. "I should've recognized you from the book jackets. I've read all of your books—I'm a big fan! So good to meet you," she shook my brother's hand and he gave me a questioning glance. I shrugged.

"So, uh, who exactly are you?" he questioned.

"Oh, right! Sorry. I'm Dr. Julia Peters. I saw your face on the evening news and thought I'd offer my assistance in this…alien matter."

"We already have a doctor, thank you," Ben cut her off.

"No, no," she laughed. "I'm not a medical doctor. I'm an alien bio-specialist, one of the leading in my field…"

"We have one of those, too," Ben replied curtly. "My wife is an alien biologist."

The woman's face fell momentarily. "I'm sure she's quite capable, Ben—can I call you Ben?—but I doubt she has the level of experience I do. You see, when the aliens invaded Brisbane my dad and I escaped. He shot a skitter and we took it with us and we studied it. Haven't stopped since. I've almost twenty years of experience, I can really be of use!"

Now I was starting to get annoyed. "Look, Dr. Peters, we appreciate the offer but Alexandra is perfectly capable. Thank you."

"Right," she said quietly. "Well…I'd be happy to work in tandem with your wife, Ben. I'm sure as a scientist she can appreciate a second opinion. I know I do. We'd be stronger as a team! Between the two of us, I'm fairly certain there isn't a single weakness on any of these species that we couldn't exploit. I don't even eat that much, I'd hardly be a strain on your group."

Ben looked peeved. "Look," I told her. "We appreciate the offer and we'll consider it. Right now, we still need to prepare for the invasion before we can even discuss fighting back."

"Er…alright, I guess. Thanks for your time Ben and…"

"Hal Mason," I finished for her.

"Yes, of course! I'm staying at the Four Seasons in Back Bay if you change your mind. I'd advise you hurry though—you said they'll be making their return tonight, after all."

"Thanks," Ben said shortly, effectively ending the conversation. We turned and walked into the house. "You aren't seriously considering her offer, are you?"

"I dunno," I answered. "What do you think? Maybe Alex could use some of the help…"

"I think she'll be fine on her own," Ben returned. "Besides, I don't like this Dr. Peters woman."

I shot him a grin. "She's very…forward. But she's also a _big fan_!" He snorted. "Let's see how it plays out," I finally said. "I'm not discounting her just yet."

"So now what," my brother turned to me, then looked at the others still in the house. Dai was still staring out the window, Alex and Maggie were talking quietly near the kitchen. Gabe and Jimmy sat nervously in armchairs and Lourdes was arranging and re-arranging a first aid kit, Anne assisting her. Dad and Matt had gone in search of a few others and thus everyone was accounted for in some way.

"Now," I sighed. "We finish prepping. And then we wait…"

* * *

**A/N: Wow! My longest chapter for any story, ever! Again, so sorry that I was gone for so long. I've left a lot of 'revelations' from the season 2 finale out but they'll come into play, too, never you fear. Now that I've really set up the action the next chapters should be up fairly quick. I hope you enjoyed this and that you'll review! Again, I apologize for the long-windedness! **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I have returned for yet another update! Told ya I'd be quicker now that the stage is set for re-invasion! Not much else to say to you guys at the moment, better luck with the closing note! Now get to that reading. Afterwards, leave a review! (Please and thank you!)**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Jimmy Mason**

The sun had set about forty-five minutes earlier and we were all gathered in the living room of my Uncle Hal's place. There were people _everywhere _outside, all camped out watching the skies. The house had sort of become 'HQ' for the new resistance, ever since it was broadcast on the news that the harnessed kid Jesse was here. I don't know exactly what it was like during the war, but I imagine it looked something like this—tents outside, torches lit. It was almost like people had stopped using their technology even before any alien weapon disabled it. It was weird.

The clock ticking on the fireplace mantle said it was just past nine. All eyes were fixed on the windows as Aunt Maggie moved around, serving drinks. That was weird, too—the drinks. It was like some sort of crazy stargazing party instead of a pending alien attack, but I knew she was trying to alleviate the tension and the stressed atmosphere. I couldn't blame her for trying.

Dr. Delgado was outside, driving up and down the street in her blue SUV and carrying supplies to the people camped out there. My dad was helping her. People from all over had brought supplies, weapons, all sorts of stuff to try and help the cause. Those who weren't too busy freaking out, anyway. From the conversation, I knew some of the people were familiar faces, old members of the 2nd Mass. Granddad and Uncle Matt had gone out to bring back others that they knew.

"When are they coming?" Gabe whispered, eyes fixed dead ahead.

"You act like you _want _them to come," his sister retorted, but it was obvious she was getting antsy waiting too.

Uncle Hal was going over a list with Dai in the corner of the room. "So…inventory. We've got a few National Guardsmen with assault rifles, bunch of enthusiasts with old hunting rifles and revolvers…couple of pistols, and Anthony brought back a ton of old police weaponry. How are we looking on vehicles?"

"We have yet to recover the GTO," Dai answered, and I surmised that either Gabe or Rebecca had informed them of our misadventure in the car. "All the old bikes, Lourdes has that Ford Escape but it won't do us much good if they disable our technology again…"

"Guys!" Aunt Maggie was calling our attention to the screen. "The President's about to address the issue…"

We watched as the President of the United States appeared onscreen. Granddad often griped about how an alien invasion hadn't managed to fix what was wrong with politics and I could see what he meant. The story ran beginning at around five. It took him _four hours _to prepare a statement and even then it was a pretty lame one.

"My fellow Americans," he began with the standard presidential opener. "It has come to my attention that there is credible alien threat to our nation and to this planet. Now, our space program experts have told me there is no indication of any alien activity within Earth's proximity but that is no reason to let our guards down. I want to ensure the American people tonight that if this threat does come to pass, the US Army will be fully prepared to deal with it."

"Bullshit," Dai scoffed. "Because that clearly worked out so well the first time."

"And I have assurances from the leaders of the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and at least a dozen other nations that their armies have been prepped. We do not yet know when or how this attack will occur, if it does at all, but a lot of sources are claiming that the evidence is strong. I don't know…what to believe in this matter, but it is my duty as leader of this strong nation to be ready and to assuage the doubts and fears of the citizens. Therefore, I promise you that wherever you are, you will be safe. Thank you and good night."

Silence rang out as we continued to stare at the screen. A newscaster came on, her voice devoid of any real emotion despite the circumstances. "Sightings of the alien race known to us as the Overlords have increased around the world since the news out of Boston, you can see some footage here of what appears to be a tall, slender figure. This was taken early this evening in Scottsdale, Arizona. Space analysts have no conclusive evidence that there is an attacking fleet out there but they have said it is possible for the ships to be hiding behind planets such as Mars and Jupiter to avoid detection. They've cited the first attack on Earth seventeen years ago as proof that these beings' cloaking abilities are beyond what we are capable of detecting. We go live now to Mark Donohue in Los Angeles…"

I stopped listening after that. Maybe these space analysts couldn't see or detect the overlords and their ships, but I could hear their communications. At least until the one in Boston was killed. The signals had dropped off since then, as the harnessed kids stopped communicating with one another. Once or twice I'd pick up faint buzzes like the fleet was trying to contact their dead friend but those had stopped too.

And now it was just us—humanity—sitting and waiting. Shuffling on the front porch alerted us to more visitors and Aunt Maggie was at the door in seconds.

"Tom, Matt," I heard her greet as she stood aside and allowed them to come inside. Behind them, I noticed some people. Aunt Maggie let out a short laugh as she greeted the group of four. Uncle Hal was at the door moments later to greet Granddad and Uncle Matt, then the others. I gaped at the group—a big, hulking man with a shaved head and a tough-looking, graying goatee. He looked intimidating. Behind him was a man who looked to be in his fifties, dressed in plain, checkered clothing with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder. Beside that man was a woman, short and slim and also in her mid-fifties. Her hair was tightly wound and curly and graying at the roots. Trailing behind them all was a girl who looked to be close in age to us—also carrying a hunting rifle—with hair similar to the woman. Gabe shot me a questioning glance and I shrugged. I didn't recall anyone by these descriptions in my dad's stories.

"Glad you could make it," Uncle Hal was saying to them. "We could use the Berserkers again."

Then it clicked. The Berserkers. Dad had some amount of praise for what they did and some rather unsavory words for their former leader Pope. Thankfully, none of them seemed to match Pope's description. I thought hard, trying to remember the names of these folks. "The woman's name is Lee," I whispered to Gabe, who nodded as he leant closer to hear. "But they used to call her Crazy Lee. And the big guy's name is Lyle. The other one is called Tector—not his real name, but I don't remember what that is."

Gabe nodded. "Who's the other girl?" he whispered.

"Not sure," I shook my head. "Maybe Lee's daughter?" There was a resemblance between the two. My cousin nodded.

"So where's your sister?" I asked, looking around, not seeing Rebecca anywhere.

"With that guy Jesse," Gabe snorted. "Probably making out or something."

I laughed at his sarcasm. It was obvious he was sore about being kicked out of his own room. Uncle Hal brought the curly-haired girl over to us. "Boys, this is Sadie," he introduced her. "Her parents were part of the Berserkers," he pointed to Tector and 'Crazy' Lee. "Sadie, that's my son Gabe and my nephew Jimmy." Gabe nodded his head and offered her a wave. Sadie plopped down between us.

"So you boys ready for an invasion?" she asked. Her voice was loud, bordering on obnoxious.

"You're excited?" Gabe asked incredulously.

"Hell yes," she laughed. "I've shot deer, I've shot rabbits, I've shot squirrels. Ain't ever shot an alien, though." Gabe recoiled at her mention of hunting animals.

"Sadie, I hate to tell you but it's not like a game," I tried to reason with her, as if I knew the first thing about killing these creatures.

"Damn straight," she said, looking at me out of the corner of her brownish eyes. "They want a piece of us, I say come get it!"

"How old are you?" Gabe asked. His tone said it was supposed to be an insult but she either ignored it or it went right over her head.

"Nineteen," Sadie declared. Gabe's frown deepened.

"So…you were born before the first invasion ended?" I could tell his mind was blown. We'd only heard of one time when a baby was born during the invasion and that was to some civilian woman named Sarah.

"Something like that," Sadie replied. "I was the best damn mistake my parents ever made!"

There was something…intriguing about Sadie. She was crude, that's for sure. And definitely spoiling for a fight. But she was also kind of funny. "So you're going to fight for the 2nd Mass?" I asked her.

"Hell yeah!" she looked at me like it were obvious. "My daddy fought for the 2nd Mass, my mom fought for the 2nd Mass, and they're all set to do it again and so am I! We even brought a couple of dirt bikes." She added the last bit like it was some sort of dangerous secret. Gabe scoffed and from the look on his face it was clear he was completely put off by her, but then again Gabe's like that. He gets leery at the first sign of rule-breaking. Not his fault, but that's just the way he is.

There was a lull in the conversation and I started paying more attention to what the adults were saying. "Jeanne Weaver's riding in from Connecticut," Uncle Matt was saying. "And Anthony's bringing his police partner. They've got some old equipment from the precinct that I could probably get working again…"

"Any word on Pope?" Dai questioned.

"Funny you say that," Granddad took over the conversation. "Rumor has it he landed at Logan Airport a few nights back on personal business. He might be in town and I'll bet he'll be coming around soon enough when these aliens get here."

"Just great," Aunt Maggie moaned, shooting a peeved look to Uncle Hal. "One more thing to keep an eye on."

"So how do you know they're coming tonight?" I turned my attention back to Sadie, who was looking at me earnestly.

"He heard their communications," Gabe answered, suddenly clamping his mouth shut when he realized what he was saying.

"You _heard _them?" Sadie gaped. I nodded slowly, not sure how she would react. "Like you could actually hear what they were saying?"

"Well kind of…" I answered without really giving anything away.

"Just like your daddy can? Because of the spikes I mean?" I nodded warily. "That is so _awesome_!" she exulted. I let out the breath I'd been holding in. "Can you hear them all the time?"

"Only when they're close," I smiled. The few people outside my family who found out about my abilities were always freaked out. This was the first time anyone thought it was _cool_.

"You're like an early-warning system!" Sadie exclaimed. "Like one of those burglar alarms for fish-heads!"

"I guess you could say that…"

I don't really remember what else we said after that—mostly just small talk. Sadie was an only-child who lived on some sort of farm not too far from Boston. She knew at least as much about the war as I did, maybe more. Or at least a different perspective. And I found that even if she was obnoxious and loud and kind of rude, I liked her. She was genuine, she didn't hide her personality. It got to the point where I'd even say we're kind of friends. Kind of. It was clear Gabe still thought she was trouble, though.

We watched the skies intermittently. My dad got back inside with Dr. Delgado around midnight and Aunt Maggie came to us.

"I think you should probably get to bed," she advised the three of us sitting on the floor.

"Mom are you serious?" Gabe looked annoyed. "There's an alien _war _coming and you want us to go to bed?"

It was obvious even Aunt Maggie thought it was kind of ridiculous but she held her ground. "There's no war _yet_," she said. "And when it comes you are all going to need as much rest as possible."

"Mom!" Gabe protested.

"I wasn't asking you to go to bed, I was _telling _you, Gabe. And I'm sure Alex would feel the same way about Jimmy. You could go up and crash in Gabe's room—all of you. Rebecca's there and I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

"Not likely," Gabe muttered, standing up and going up the stairs, clearly frustrated. I followed slowly. Sadie hung back a bit, looking awkwardly at the adults and I could tell she wasn't sure where she belonged. I looked to Gabe, who shrugged and motioned for her to come along if she wanted. She looked relieved. I think she preferred us to the adults anyway.

Gabe's room was dark but Rebecca had left the shade open so she could see out of it. Of course, she had fallen asleep in the chair long ago so it didn't really matter. Jesse was up, though. His head snapped in our direction as we entered, his eyes practically glowing in the dark. Gabe nodded in his direction and he made a move to get up.

"Don't bother," Gabe told him, taking a seat on the floor and leaning against the wall. "You need the bed more than I do." To be honest, I think he was more freaked out over how dirty the sheets had become, even though Dr. Delgado had helped get Jesse cleaned up.

"Saw you on the news," Sadie told him, kneeling at the bedside and leaning up against it. "Some pretty crazy stuff you've been through."

Rebecca stirred at the loud voice, snapping up and looking about frantically, nearly jumping when we all turned to stare at her in the dark room. "What the _hell_, guys?" she asked, eyeing me and Gabe suspiciously. "Who's…"

"Sadie Murphy," Sadie turned to her. "Future skitter huntress."

"Uh-huh," Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "Rebecca Mason."

"You Jimmy's brother or Gabe's?"

"Gabe's," Rebecca answered, shooting some kind of a glare at her brother. Gabe just shrugged and went back to leaning against the wall. "So what are you guys doing here?" she asked.

"Waiting," I answered. "Our mothers, true to form, sent us to bed. Sadie came to keep us all company."

Rebecca scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Any sign of _them_?"

"Nope," I sighed. "And I can't hear any communications."

"You can hear them?" Jesse sat up and I groaned. I did _not _feel like explaining it again.

"Yes," I said. "My dad was harnessed once and I have some of the abilities. If they're close, I can hear them."

Jesse nodded. "I can hear them too," he said. "But…they aren't communicating anymore."

"Does that mean they're almost here?" Rebecca asked.

"Who knows?" he shrugged. "Hopefully it means they gave up and went home."

A snoring noise alerted us the fact that Gabe, for all his protesting, had fallen asleep, his head lolling to one side against the wall. Rebecca scoffed again and I bit back a smirk. Sadie was snickering away, however. "I think maybe we should all try to sleep," I defended him.

"Uh-uh, no way in hell," Sadie spoke loudly. "These bastards are coming tonight? I'll be waiting for 'em!"

My cousin stared at the other girl with a look of mild disdain for how loudly Sadie was speaking. "I agree. There's no way you could even suggest going to sleep!"

"How about shifts?" Jesse proposed, propping himself up on one elbow. Only one afternoon and he was already talking to us like we were his friends. I must say it was nice to have someone I could relate to, though. "This way, one of us can wake the others up if the aliens come."

It was so weird, to be honest. It was like we were kids again—little kids—hanging out on Christmas Eve and waiting for Santa Claus to come. Only there was no promise of anything joyous this time around, only lots of death if we weren't careful. Funny how it had the same effect on us nonetheless.

"I think it's a good idea," I finally said. "I'll take first watch." Everyone started to protest.

"_I'll _take first watch," Jesse said. "I don't need as much rest as you guys do so a bit of lost sleep won't be too big a deal."

"But—" Rebecca began to protest.

"Please?" Jesse asked. "You need your rest, Rebecca. All of you need rest."

I frowned at how he was talking to us—like he was the leader or something when he'd only been here for one afternoon. And thanks to us, I might add. But he was the oldest so I decided I'd let it go. I still liked the guy overall. I watched the fight drain out of my cousin like never before and she finally agreed, letting her head hit the wall as she leaned back in her chair. Sadie looked to me and shrugged, flopping down on a beanbag chair in the corner. She'd brought the hunting rifle up with her and it was lying across her lap. Jesse was sitting up in bed, alert and staring out the window. Finally, I sat down under the windowsill, across from the bed.

"Wake me up in a couple hours," I requested. "I'll relieve you."

"Okay," Jesse nodded, but something told me that he wouldn't do it. "I'm Jesse by the way," he added as an afterthought—as if I didn't already know.

"James Mason," I answered tiredly. "But everyone calls me Jimmy." He made a noise to acknowledge the statement and that was the end of conversation between us. Almost an hour in, I could hear Rebecca's heavy breathing clear across the room. Or maybe it was just my hearing. Sadie, no surprise, snores like a truck in her sleep. Jesse was still staring out the window. Against my will, my eyelids slowly grew heavier and heavier. I remember thinking that I couldn't fall asleep before finally letting my fatigue win. _They're coming._

* * *

**A/N: So now you see sort of where this is going—the 2****nd**** Mass and the kids within that group. And you've got kids like Rebecca and Gabe whose parents shield them from everything and you get kids like Sadie who can't wait to just **_**shoot **_**something. I must say, Sadie is a favorite of mine just because of how tomboy-ish and tough she is. I love writing her so expect more from her later. Pope might be back (uh-oh) and next chapter introduces the last of the 'new guys' for the series. Are the Overlords really coming? Guess we'll soon see! Only one POV this chapter but it was long so I hope that makes up for it? Please review! Thanks! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Whew! It's been forever since my last update! I'm so sorry about that, guys, I really am. My courses are killer this year so updates will be on a weekly basis (if that often). Please bear with me. Come Thanksgiving and Christmas I'll be updating the hell out of everything. Anyway, couldn't just leave you guys hanging so here's the next update. Hope ya'll are still with me and will drop a review at the end. That would be fantastic.**

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**Chapter 8: Jimmy Mason**

I woke up with sunlight filtering in through the window. My neck was sore from leaning against the wall all night. Jesse was passed out on the bed, Sadie snoring like a lawn mower in the beanbag chair. Gabe was slumped over in a corner and Rebecca had her head against the back of the chair. And then it all hit me at once.

_This wasn't right. _Why weren't they here? I had _heard _that Overlord _in _my head. I _heard _his communication signals. They were coming last night! So why weren't they here? I stood up quickly. "Guys!" I hissed urgently, rousing Jesse. I tapped Gabe lightly with my foot and he sat up in a panic. Rebecca came to groggily but Sadie was still snoring away. "Guys, what happened?"

Rebecca looked around. "Morning," she said grimly. "And they aren't here."

Gabe bit his lip as he looked around nervously. A loud snore from Sadie interrupted his train of thought and he rolled his eyes, smacking the poor girl awake. She sat up with a loud snort and looked around.

"Alright! Daylight! Who's ready to go bug hunting?!"

"Will you shut up?" Gabe burst out, agitated. "They didn't come! They aren't here, probably never will be." He glared at me and I could feel heat rising in my cheeks. _This was my fault_.

"Get a grip," Rebecca said to him severely. There have been many occasions where she looked like she wanted to punch him but this was by far the angriest I'd seen her in a while. "He didn't know. And they may still be coming—we don't know either."

"What do we do now?" Jesse asked, the first time he'd spoken.

"Can you still hear them?" Rebecca questioned. We both shook our heads. The weak communication signals had been getting stronger all the time last night and now…they'd just been cut off completely. Like they'd never even been transmitting. She sighed.

"We should probably head downstairs and see what the situation's like," she finally said, making for the door. I followed her out, the others right behind me.

It was a mess. I found my mother, Aunt Maggie, and a few others on the phone, no doubt dealing with irate callers and trying to do some damage control. Of course, their reputations would have been spared if it weren't for me. I saw my dad and Uncle Hal outside, talking to angry neighbors. Their voices were steadily rising as the mob grew. Anthony was there too, alongside a man who was easily six foot four, built like a linebacker and just as imposing. They had guns. I think that's the only thing that held the angry crowd back and kept them from ripping the house apart. Dr. Delgado had a med kit out and was treating a kid who looked like he'd gotten caught up in the craziness outside. Uncle Matt and Grandma were helping her.

Suddenly, I heard a shout from outside and my Uncle Matt's voice yelling at me to duck. I hit the deck as a brick hurtled past me, landing a few feet away. My mom screamed and Granddad and Dai came running.

"Are you alright, Jimmy?" Uncle Matt asked, helping me up. I nodded shakily and he stared out the window disdainfully. "Watch out, okay?" He went out with Granddad and Dai to calm the crowd.

The shouts were louder now and I could make out a few things from the general din.

"…liars!"

"…thieves!"

"…trying to take advantage of us!"

"…playing us like fools!"

"…there are no aliens!"

I felt my heart beat quicken at each ugly word. This was _all _my fault. My parents, my uncles, my aunt, my grandparents…I had put them in danger by calling this false alarm. The bricks were being thrown because of _me_. I caught Gabe glaring at me from the kitchen. Rebecca must have noticed too, because she dragged him away a moment later. But he was right to glare at me like that. I would've glared at me like that too, if I could.

The door opened and the sensory overload of all the yelling was almost too much. Dr. Delgado's baby started crying. My dad came running in, out of breath. Everyone else trailed in after, shutting the door on the angry crowd. They were still beating on the front door like it was a bad comedy. Only this wasn't funny. Dad spotted me and his face softened but he didn't say a word. No one did. They were too busy cleaning up my mess.

"Sorry," I muttered once they'd walked past. I jumped when I felt a hand clasp on my shoulder and wheeled around to face my grandmother.

"Hey," she said gently.

"Hi," I mumbled.

"It's not your fault," she blurted, not beating around the bush.

"Yeah it is," I countered. "It's _all _my fault."

"You warned us because you thought we were in danger. That's not a fault."

"Try telling that to them," I jerked a thumb toward the door.

"They'll simmer down," she said. Her eyes were glistening.

"Anne!" Dr. Delgado called from her place kneeled down at the kid's side. "He's bleeding again!" Grandma gave me an encouraging smile and then ran off to help the doctor. My gut felt worse after that. This kid got hurt because of me, too.

It was almost an hour later when a frantic pounding came at the back door. Aunt Maggie tried to ignore it at first, positive it was just another angry protestor. But a woman's voice rang out, clear and crisp. I didn't recognize the voice but she had an Australian accent and she was calling my dad's name over and over. Finally, Uncle Hal let her in.

She was skinny and blonde, well dressed, blue eyes, tanned. She looked like a movie star, except her hair was all frazzled from the people jostling her outside. "Oh thank God you're still here," she said to my father, completely ignoring Uncle Hal.

"Oh…right…Dr…?"

"Peters," the woman answered like it was impossible to forget her name. "The alien bio-specialist."

"Right."

"Thank God you're still here. Listen, I know it's a mess right now but I think I have a way to prove these aliens really are returning!"

If Dad was dismissive of her before, he wasn't now.

"Look, you killed one of the Overlord creatures on your rescue mission, correct?"

"My father did, actually," Dad corrected.

"_Our _father," Uncle Hal broke in, clearly annoyed that the woman hadn't acknowledged a single other person.

She turned to him like she'd never seen him before. "Oh, hello! You're Ben's brother, right?" Uncle Hal grunted. "Anyway, wouldn't the body still be there? If you bring it back, I could run a diagnostic that proves it was killed only a day ago! Then they'd have to believe your story—an expert would have corroborated it!"

"My wife…" Dad started.

"Is more than welcome to assist, but let's face it: I am far more experienced. I mean no offense when I say that but I'm a pioneer in this field. People recognize my name, my face. Plus I'm not partial to one side over the other. I'm just a scientist. I would have no reason to lie. They might accuse your wife of lying to protect you. Don't you see? You _need _me!"

Dad looked really, _really _unhappy but Uncle Hal gave the woman a long, considering look. "You may have a point," he finally said.

"Hal!" My dad pulled him aside and murmured something that I couldn't hear, even from where I was sitting. Finally, they returned to the woman, who waited expectantly and plucked at her nails. "Fine," Dad finally concurred. "One shot to prove yourself and Alex is going to help you."

"I guarantee I won't disappoint you," she finally said. "But I'll need you to take me to the body of the creature." Uncle Hal nodded and the three of them left for the motorcycles parked out back. I watched them go. I didn't like this Dr. Peters woman. She seemed like trouble. And one thing really stuck out to me: how did she know about the rescue mission? But then again, I'd already been wrong once and look what happened. I wasn't going to speak up and embarrass myself and my family again.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Gabe Mason**

This was all Jimmy's fault. There was a crazy mob overrunning my house, my mom was going crazy, my dad was going out with Uncle Ben and some Australian woman in a desperate attempt to fix his mistake. I bounced around from place to place, trying to help where I could. Sadie's parents were outside on crowd control so she went to join them. I said a silent prayer of thanks for that because even if she means well, she's incredibly annoying.

A woman came around noon, riding up on a quad and basically pushing her way through the throng of people to get up to the house. She had dark hair, watery blue eyes, and she looked a bit weather-beaten, though she couldn't have been much older than my dad. Mom and Dr. Delgado greeted her as Jeanne. Apparently another member of the original 2nd Mass, though I'm not sure what she did exactly.

In between doing whatever I could to help out, I kept seething. I mean, I understand he's different and all but _how _could he let it get this out of hand? If he wasn't a hundred percent sure, he shouldn't have said anything. Now we had a crisis that didn't involve visitors from outer space. In fact, I was willing to bet they weren't even coming. The one Overlord we found was probably just a remainder—left behind by accident, maybe. And all the other sightings? Well when one person claims to see some mythical creature, you can bet a hundred others will too.

Rebecca caught me glaring at Jimmy. I wasn't really aware I was doing it. To be honest, I'd probably have stopped if I had known. He had to have felt like absolute crap. But there I was, making it worse. I was mad, though.

"Will you quit acting like a three year old?" my sister hissed, smacking the side of my head. I rubbed the tender spot. "Jimmy's been through enough, alright? So lay off him!"

"I didn't _say _anything!" I defended.

"Right," she answered sarcastically. "But you just stood there and glared at him to make him feel worse about himself. Cut it out or _I'll _do something about it."

"Go ahead and try," I challenged. She smacked me again and stormed off to the other side of the kitchen, pretending to be busy doing something. I'm not a persecutor, but I was now doubly angry with my cousin.

Anthony entered the kitchen a few minutes, accompanied by a gigantic guy. He had to have been almost six and a half feet tall, shaved head, hulking…not exactly the type you'd want to come up against in a dark alley. They must noticed us—or at least me—staring, because Anthony spoke up.

"Kids, this is Calvin Haynes. He's been my partner on the force for ten years."

Calvin offered a somewhat shy wave to me and smiled at my sister. "You can just call me C-Bear," he said. I had to suppress a laugh because he was _not _a guy who looked like he'd wear the name C-Bear.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not," Rebecca said flatly.

Calvin laughed. "I like this one, she's got a sense of humor."

Anthony chuckled. "Calvin's a gentle giant." Rebecca laughed and I did my best to force one. He was still intimidating.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Maggie Mason**

In truth, I didn't have time to reflect on how bad things were with the Overlords' failure to show up. I was too busy trying to limit the amount of damage. I felt like we were defending the hospital in Virginia again. Only this time it was an angry mob instead of mechs and Karen.

Lourdes and I were trying to make our way through the throng discreetly. She'd locked some more supplies in her SUV down the street and with all the minor bumps and scrapes form all the pushing and shoving it was starting to look like we'd need them.

"Excuse me?" A voice called out. Male. And timid sounding. We both turned. The man in front of us was definitely around our age. He was reedy looking, a bit pale, with shaggy brown hair. He looked at us a bit nervously, green eyes shifting back and forth. He was dressed in scrubs. "Um…I'm looking for one of the Masons?"

"Well you found one," I responded. "What can we do for you?"

"Um…" he cleared his throat. "I'm Charles Prim…I'm a pediatric trauma surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Boston. I…uh…saw the news last night and thought that maybe I could…you know, help you guys out if you need it…? I'm not a good fighter but I-I'd be happy to help your medics."

"Didn't you hear?" I asked. "Skies are clear. No telling when they're coming. They might not be."

"I-I know," he answered. "But I thought I'd offer. Just in case."

I sighed, not sure. Dr. Prim seemed nice but he was definitely very jittery. And nervous. Not sure how he ever made a good surgeon. "This is Lourdes Delgado, she's our chief medical officer. Talk to her." Lourdes' eyes widened when I directed him to her and she looked to me uncertainly. "Your call," I murmured. "I'll go get the supplies out of your car in the meantime." She nodded and handed me the key to the Escape.

When I returned, Lourdes was still talking to the newcomer.

"…so I worked in the ER over at Brigham and Women's. But it was nothing compared to the stuff I saw during the invasion. First year pre-med couldn't have prepared me for all that."

"Same," he answered. "They wouldn't let me do much but I assisted the medical team for the fourth New Jersey militia. Saw a lot of surgical stuff."

I smiled as I approached, holding up the box of supplies. The change in Dr. Prim's demeanor was…strange. He seemed really comfortable around a fellow professional. Lourdes smiled, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear.

"Well?" I asked.

"I think Dr. Prim would be a big asset to our team. And for now he can help me and Anne treat some of the minor injuries. Matt could use a break, I don't think he likes seeing all the blood."

"Can't blame him. Have you seen Hal?" It occurred to me that in all the chaos I had lost track of my husband. I knew my kids were still in the kitchen at least.

"He went with Ben and some scientist to recover the Overlord body. They should be back soon."

I nodded. "I hope so. I'd feel better if he were here."

"Can't blame you," Lourdes said as she and Dr. Prim fell into step beside me as we made our way toward the house. "I'm keeping Emmanuel inside the house at all times."

"I mean I know Hal's not in any real danger and he can take care of himself but right now, the separation anxiety is just—" I was cut off by a sharp scream from the crowd. I watched as a bright light fell from the sky almost in slow motion. Then the first tremors hit. And the sky didn't stop falling…

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**A/N: Cue ominous music! I know it's a horrible, evil cliffhanger of horrible evilness but it'll keep you reading, right? I'm actually kind of proud of this chapter. I feel like I hit a lull last chapter so this is to make up for it. Three POVs as a nice treat. And that's it for new characters to introduce, FYI. We have Julia Peters, the arrogant Australian alien specialist (tongue twister!), Calvin Haynes, the imposing but gentle giant, Jesse Norcutt, the previously harnessed kid with mysterious circumstances surrounding him, and Dr. Charles Prim, a nervous but sweet surgeon. Who can be trusted? What will I do with all these new characters? Who knows? Keep reading to find out! Leave a review, please, and I'll try to get a new update out by the end of this week. Don't hold me to that, though. I have a physics test coming up. (I hate that class). That's all!**

**PS: Yes, I mention Lourdes' car being a Ford Escape because (a) I'm a car buff and (b) it's ironic that it's called 'escape' :P**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Say whaaaat? Another update folks! Let's go! Another gap but in my defense I've been swamped. Homework and our show choir is going to Disney this year to perform! So we've been busy rehearsing that too. In any event, it's here and it's now and it's done so I hope you'll read/review! Just a note: updates may be a bit slow out the gate in the near future. Hurricane Sandy is on her way. Stay safe everyone! **

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**Chapter 9: Ben Mason**

I'll be completely honest: I was never thrilled with the idea of Dr. Peters joining our group. Alex is more than capable—she cataloged information about the alien species early on after joining the 2nd Mass. and spent a lot of time doing research when it was all over. I found it hard to believe some woman from the other side of the world who had written a few books and was mildly famous could surpass my wife's abilities.

Hal, on the other hand, thought she might be of some use. I think we were always in agreement that she was arrogant and self-absorbed, but he seemed to think she had something to offer. I hadn't quite mentioned it to Alex yet.

After Dad shot the Overlord outside that old repair shop, we had to leave the body there. We didn't want to spark a panic carrying the carcass through the streets of Boston. Now it didn't really matter. People were pissed and seemed to think we were lying. I had to admit Dr. Peters' strategy was a sound one. Didn't change the fact that I didn't trust her.

The body was still there when we arrived. Dr. Peters had been all too content to ride on the motorcycle with me and for the sake of getting things done I didn't argue with her.

"That's our friend," Hal motioned to the giant, lifeless form.

"Impressive," Dr. Peters murmured, stooping down to look at it. She reached out tentatively and touched it, letting her manicured fingers linger a moment before standing up. "Definitely not dead for more than forty-eight hours. His skin is still a grayish white and it's soft to the touch."

"How do you know so much about them?" I asked suspiciously. There was something suspicious about her. She seemed awful young to have 'pioneered' this field. She looked younger than Hal, possibly younger than me too.

Dr. Peters smiled. "When the aliens struck Brisbane, they killed my mother. I was about twelve. My dad and I ran. Dad had a gun, so he shot one of the crab-like ones: the ones you call skitters. We hid in the forest for some time. Dad was a scientist so he got curious and started studying it. We made our way to the Outback eventually, shot them as we went. I haven't stopped studying them since."

"That's a great story," Hal interrupted impatiently, "but can we get a move on here? We need to be back soon."

"Yes, of course," Dr. Peters walked back to the body and I found the clicking of her high heels to be very irritating. _Who was stupid enough to wear high heels during a potential alien invasion? It was like she was trying to get killed or something! _I decided she had no clue what survival meant.

Hal and I hooked the alien's body up to the back of our motorcycles—one arm tied to each. The ride would cause damage to the specimen for sure, but it would still be in decent enough shape to be analyzed, Dr. Peters told us. (Not that I trusted her opinion, but what she said made sense).

I'm not sure when exactly it happened—we must have been half of the way home when Hall suddenly applied the brakes. I was forced to stop too or else I'd be pulled backwards into my brother and the dead Overlord. "What the hell's going on?" I asked. Hal was staring wordlessly into the sky and I followed his gaze. _No_.

There was a blue light making its way across the sky. It looked almost like a comet. But it wasn't. There were dozens appearing now. The ground started to shake and Dr. Peters fell over from the tremors. The blue lights were raining down over Boston. I immediately thought of Jimmy and of Alex. My family was still back at Hal's place. But soon I couldn't think at all. The frequencies were off the charts and my head was pounding. There were hundreds of them—Overlords, crawlies, mechs…_kids_. They were communicating with each other and it was overwhelming.

The pain continued to swell as blood rushed to my ears. I could hear the pounding of my own heart but little else. Hal was shouting something at me and I looked up at him. I didn't realize I was on the ground until that moment. His voice was getting more and more distant, his concerned features getting fuzzier. I blacked out.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Rebecca Mason**

Talking to Calvin definitely helped improve my spirits. I was sick and tired of my brother acting like a child, blaming Jimmy for something he couldn't have anticipated. He was trying to _help _us. Of course, Gabe couldn't get it through his thick skull.

Calvin was actually a really funny guy, I was coming to find. He was sort of like…like that one crazy neighbor you have that you can't help but adore. He seemed intimidating at first. He had this long, dark scar on his chin that divided the dark skin there in half. His voice was this deep, booming, intimidating one but his laugh rolled and rumbled and sounded like thunder. And he liked to laugh a lot. I could see why Anthony got along with him. We were in the kitchen, talking and laughing and trying to pretend there wasn't a mob outside our door. They'd just come in for some water, they said. Gabe sat sulkily at the table and traced patterns in the wood with his fingers. I just rolled my eyes at him. Even during a time of crisis, he's such a brat.

Calvin was in the process of telling a joke when the ground started shaking. At first I thought someone was moving something around but the rumbling got stronger. Gabe looked at me wide-eyed. _Earthquake? _Then I saw the blue light outside and heard the first explosion. People started screaming. Anthony and Calvin bolted for the door to check on the situation outside.

"Get under the table!" I shouted to my brother. Things were rattling and falling now. Aunt Alexandra rushed through the kitchen.

"Has anyone seen Jimmy?" she shouted frantically.

I shook my head. Last I'd seen him, he had been heading outside for something or other. In a rush, she headed for the back door. "Stay down and stay put!" she shouted behind her. The quaking hadn't stopped. I heard the baby crying. _The baby_.

"Gabe, stay put!" I ordered him.

"Rebecca! What the hell are you doing?" he grabbed my wrist to hold me back.

"Dr. Delgado's son is still in the living room!" I practically screamed. The sounds of panic outside were drowning out everything else. "I'm going to go get him!"

"Aunt Alexandra—"

"I don't care!" I pulled my hand away forcefully. "Just stay here!"

I didn't wait, I just ran. The living room was empty—the others had gone outside to see what was going on. Little Emmanuel Delgado was strapped into his car seat, screaming desperately. I _had _to get him out. If the tremors got stronger, furniture could easily fall on him. I bolted to the toddler and worked at his safety belt. All of his thrashing and kicking didn't help but I finally managed to get him free.

"Rebecca!"

_Gabe. _I looked at my brother angrily. I had _told _him to stay put for a reason! "What?!" That's when he pointed and I could see the book shelf falling, looming over me. I had just enough time to pull Emmanuel close to me and shield him with my body before the heavy, wooden object came crashing down on top of me…

* * *

**Chapter 9: Jimmy Mason**

One time, when I got bullied at school before I knew about my abilities, Dad told me a story of how he felt during the War. He said that because of the spikes in his back, people rejected him a lot. Even Uncle Hal. They looked at him funny or were sometimes outright cruel to him. They called him 'freak' or other derogatory names that made me cringe because that's what people called me too.

"But you know what, Jimmy?" Dad had asked. I remember looking up at him with my seven-year-old eyes, fully waiting for some revelation on how to get rid of bullies. "I was okay with that," he said. "Know why?"

I shook my head in bewilderment.

"Because my family still cared about me. And your mom. And I had another friend—his name was Jimmy, too. He didn't like me very much at first. He was scared of me, actually. But we became good friends once he saw I wasn't so bad. We were best friends, actually…"

"What happened to him?" I remember asking. And I remember the sad look on Dad's face immediately after.

"He died in the War."

I remember feeling sad about that, too. I'd never known Jimmy—I later came to find out his last name was Boland—but I felt connected to him. We both knew my dad. And we were both named Jimmy.

I kept walking down the street, ignoring all the people around me. Some shouted but I didn't care. I needed to breathe, needed fresh air. It was too stifling in the house, what with my cousin glaring at me every chance he got. I found a spot about two miles away, in this open field where buildings probably stood a long time ago. That's where I sat down.

Maybe it was the fate of all the members of my dad's bloodline to be alone. Dad sure had his fair share. People_ hated _him about as much as they hated me now. I never quite understood how my parents came to be together. It was always one of those things they could never explain. But I began to see why now. In all that difficulty, at least Mom had been there for Dad. I wished for someone like that now but all I got was wind blowing through the overgrown grass.

This was _all _my fault. I'd just caused a panic, a riot. And now, coward that I was, I had run away from the mess I'd made. How could I have been so stupid? Of course they'd give me bad information! If the people of Earth were too busy fighting each other then how could we possibly fight them? Was that the logic?

"Is that what you wanted, you bastards?!" I shouted to the field, ripping up handfuls of weeds and chucking them away. "Is it?!" I felt the tears pressing at the back of my eyes, building pressure. "Is it?!" I repeated, yelling so loud I actually startled a few nearby birds. I was ripping up grass as fast as I could now, hurling them every which way and letting the wind carry the blades off. I couldn't see, my vision was too blurry. I wanted to melt into the ground so that I wouldn't have to deal with my family afterwards. How embarrassed were they? My parents have always covered for me, reassured me, stood up for me. I remember one time—I must have been about four or five—when some brat on a playground jungle gym shoved me off and my mom came running. Mom's not a terribly outgoing person but when the other kids' mother refused to make him apologize to me, she went _off_.

Dad's covered for me even more times than that. Hell, he was covering for me now. But they had to be so disappointed inside. I couldn't put them through that. A vague thought of suicide came to mind for a fleeting instant but I couldn't do that either. My death would tear my parents up even worse than me being alive. I had to run. I had to run away and go into hiding. I wouldn't come back. I got up. That's what I'd do. I would _run_. And I would kill every last goddamned alien I came across, too.

I was already trekking across the field when the signal went out. It was strong—too strong. And close. I covered my ears with my hands and fell to my knees, clutching at the sides of my head. I saw the first blue light, then the second, the third, then…nothing…

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**A/N: Okay short chapter but really I just wanted to set up action for next time around. And it isn't the best but with Sandy almost here they're saying I might lose power. Sorry for the long delay, hopefully it won't take so long next time. For anyone in danger of being caught in the hurricane: good luck and stay safe! How bout a quick review? **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey everyone! I'm ba-ack! And in the time I took a break from, I had the opportunity to plan this out a bit more. I've decided to change up the direction a bit from my original drafts—I'm hoping to make the story a bit more cohesive. From this point onwards I will be including very little of the adults' perspective. I'd like to tell this more from the kids' points-of-view. Every so often Hal or Maggie or Ben may have a chance to narrate but those will be few and far-between. As for where we left Hal and Ben, that'll remain unresolved for the moment but I PROMISE that you'll get to see the aftermath of that as well. I've also revamped a few characters that haven't had much exposition yet and I've also planned out arcs for some new characters. I know there's a lot of people but (hint, hint) the herd will thin out as we go along. So get ready to bid farewell to some people (I won't say who but no one is safe…) As for Dai, he's still alive because I didn't feel like writing him out of previous chapters post-season finale. So that's that. I hope you'll review and enjoy. Updates may still be sporadic as my life is pretty hectic right now. Follow me on twitter (at JustoMath) if you want a glimpse into that…Anyway that's all. I'm done blabbing so let's go and jump into the story now!**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Rebecca Mason**

When I woke up, Dr. Delgado was standing over me. Her voice sounded distant and I couldn't quite make out the words. She looked concerned and she was dabbing at my forehead with an alcohol swab. _Why did my head throb so badly? _Then I remembered. The house shaking. The sky falling. Emmanuel. My brother's look of horror. The bookcase collapsing. Darkness.

My vision cleared up a bit and I tried to sit up.

"No, no, no!" Dr. Delgado gently guided me back into a lying position. "Not yet, Rebecca. I'm not done treating that gash on your forehead. You have a concussion."

I ignored her diagnosis because a new, more pressing concern had materialized in my mind. "Is Emmanuel okay?" I asked.

Dr. Delgado's face wavered a bit and then she smiled in a relieved way. "Yes. Yes, Emmanuel is safe thanks to you."

"Good," I smiled feebly.

There was a lapse in the talking. "Thank you…so much," the doctor spoke softly, like she would lose her composure if she said it any louder. As it was, moisture was gathering in her eyes as she wound a gauze wrap around my head. "I just…I can't believe I was so careless. I thought he would be safe in the house and my first instinct was to run outside and help the others that I forgot my own baby could be in danger. If you hadn't done what you did…" she trailed off as she applied a strip of surgical tape. "I'm just sorry you got hurt."

"If the baby's fine," I tried to reassure her, "then that's all that matters." I saw Emmanuel's little face in my mind, his brown eyes and dark, curly hair. I couldn't bear to imagine what could have happened to such a sweet looking baby.

"You saved him," the woman told me. "You saved one of the few good things left in my life." I could tell she wanted to say more. I was hoping she would because Dr. Delgado always seemed like the type of woman who had a story to tell. But she closed off again, wouldn't elaborate. "Thank you," she repeated.

"It was no trouble," I assured her, though my absent-minded rubbing at my temple probably didn't help much.

"Get some rest," she patted me lightly on the shoulder. "I don't want you moving around too much until you've had a bit of time."

I looked around, taking in the sights for the first time. I was in my room, but everything was dark. The emergency lanterns were lighting the room. "Dr. Delgado?"

"Yes, Rebecca?" she turned to face me as she packed some things away in a first aid kit.

"What time is it?" I was dying to know how long I'd been out of it. When the first quake hit it had been around four in the afternoon.

"Almost eight, I'd guess," she told me.

It was also eerily quiet. "Are they…"

She nodded solemnly. "They hit a couple miles outside the city. Our first squad went out to intercept them. We're gearing up for casualties."

"Where's my mother?" I suddenly wanted her close now, needed her to feel safe. "And my dad?"

Dr. Delgado knitted her brow, as if trying to decide whether or not to tell me something. "Your mom's outside prepping the other squads and your dad is…missing…"

"Missing?!"

"He, Ben, and some other scientist went to recover the Overlord body. They haven't returned." She swallowed. "We're starting to think they may be…"

"No!" I cut in, sitting up so quickly I felt dizzy. "He's fine! He'll be back!"

"You're right," Dr. Delgado concurred. "I'm sure he's fine."

"Where're Gabe and Jimmy?"

"Your brother is wandering around among the people outside and Jimmy…come to think of it I haven't seen him in a while. I'm sure he's around someplace."

A dark haired, slim man ducked his head in. He looked a bit jumpy. "Lourdes?"

"What's wrong, Charles?" she asked, grabbing the first aid kit instinctively.

"Part of the first squad is back. Two dead, four injured. Anne's already tending to them but she needs help."

"I'm coming! Rebecca, lie down and try to rest a bit, okay? I'll come check on you in a bit."

I nodded as well as I could and lay back. My head was swimming. In the span of a few hours my life and the lives of everyone around me had suddenly changed. And I was frustrated that I couldn't even look around. I briefly tried getting out of bed but the room started spinning so fast I had to sit back down again. "Damn it!" I shouted, angry with the situation I was now in. Not that I would have changed my actions for a moment if I had the chance. I could hear shouts in the street outside and wished I could just catch a glimpse, know what we were up against. Clearly the first squad was holding them off pretty well if the aliens hadn't made their way to our camp yet. I grimly thought that that could change any minute.

My thoughts turned to my brother first. Where was he? Probably milling around sulkily, petulantly cursing my mother for not allowing him to fight, too. And then I thought about Jimmy. Where was he? At a time like this, who knew? Maybe he had wandered off, found a better way to deal with the problem. And then I thought about my dad. What happened to him? It wasn't like him to just vanish or get lost. They must have gotten delayed. But by what? Had the aliens caught them? _Oh God_.

A light tapping at the door shook me out of my thoughts. I turned my head to see a dark-haired figure leaning on the doorframe. I squinted and made out Jesse's features. He was eyeing me with concern but he didn't enter any further.

"You can come in, you know."

He slowly pushed off the frame and stepped a bit closer, still shy evidently. "You're…you're okay, right?"

I nodded. "Concussion, but not the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I thought you'd be on the front lines for sure."

Jesse shrugged, coming up to the side of the bed now. "I'm part of the fighting unit but they didn't want me to be part of the first wave. Thought I was too young." He smirked a bit. "Tried to tell them I was almost thirty-five but they wouldn't believe me."

"Guess we're both in a rut," I sighed. "What's it like down there?"

"A mess," Jesse snorted. "You don't want to see, trust me. All dark, people shouting. They just brought back some of the injured from the first wave. It isn't pretty."

"I'll bet," I murmured absently. "Is it like the first time?" I wondered aloud.

Jesse was silent a minute, as if remembering. Or maybe trying to remember. "Yeah," he finally said. "They cut the power again. Only this time it was much quieter. The explosions were far away…it's like they weren't targeting people this time."

I frowned. Wasn't their _goal _to try and kill people? "Why wouldn't they target the people?"

Jesse shrugged again, sitting down on the side of my bed. I didn't consider the significance of that until much later. _Was I getting close to Jesse? _ "Maybe they're toying with us."

I liked the way he said that. _Us_. It meant he felt no connection to those things. He considered himself human. And that meant it was safe to be friends.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Gabe Mason**

I really shouldn't have gotten my hopes up in the first place. When the blue lights started coming I thought I'd have my chance to show my mom I could really do something, that I didn't need to be babied all the time. No chance of that. She'll happily go get herself blown up but when it comes to me, no way. Not happening. She was out lecturing the squads for what was coming while Dai led the first group out to intercept our malevolent alien overlords. Jimmy was off…someplace. Aunt Alexandra had gone off looking for him. He was probably just sitting someplace close by and observing. I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to be alone.

But I didn't. My dad was still missing, along with Uncle Ben and this blonde scientist lady. I wanted to be out there looking for them but Mom told me to forget about it, that Dad would find his own way back, and that they were all fine but we had bigger things to worry about. I didn't buy it for a second. Mom was really worried behind that brave face she likes to put on. It bothered the hell out of me that she couldn't just admit it. But I guess that's just my mother.

The streets are dark. The aliens must have used one of those EMPs to disable all the technology again. People are running around, screaming, shouting. It must be just past eight. It bothers me to not be able to tell time. Everything seems so endless without clocks or watches. I think about checking on Rebecca but decide against it. Dr. Delgado said she had a concussion. _She's probably out like a light_. Besides, there's more important things to deal with. I've taken to running errands—delivering medical supplies or weapons to people. Uncle Matt is running from place to place, fixing up motorcycles. I helped him push Dr. Delgado's car into somebody's garage earlier. He said he plans to swap out the engine with that of an older car so we have some four-wheeled vehicle that works. It's weird how the initial panic has died down and now everyone's acting like it's some sort of slumber party instead of considering we may only have a few hours 'til we all die. The sounds of gunfire ring out a few miles out and I know they're getting close. The wounded and dead have slowly made their way back—eight dead and nearly twenty wounded.

I had just finished delivering a first aid kit to the other doctor—Charles Prim—when I saw a frantic boy running up to me. He looked about Rebecca's age, slim with dark hair and a beanie on. _Who wears a beanie in the middle of summer? _He was carrying something.

"Help!" he cried. I saw what he was carrying—a girl. She also looked about Rebecca's age, her auburn hair fanned around her. My eyes widened when I saw the blood soaking through her blouse at her slender side. Then my suspicion took over. _What if it was a trap?_

I shook my head. I'm a Mason, after all. We help those who need it. Period. "What's wrong?" I rushed over, not seeing a doctor or anyone more qualified.

"Help her!" the kid exulted, practically collapsing on the ground and cradling the girl close to him. "Please!"

"What happened?" I asked, kneeling down next to them. I could see the hole in her side.

"The creatures!" he exclaimed. "One threw her into a pole—she got impaled in the side!" She looked bad—there was almost no color in her face.

"Dr. Delgado! Dr. Prim! Grandma! Someone!" I cried. My grandmother was at my side in moments.

"What happened?" she asked calmly, taking over. I don't know why I lingered but I did.

"The thing…it threw her into a pole," the boy repeated.

"Okay," Grandma breathed. "I need you to lift up her blouse slowly for me so I can take a look at the injury." The boy nodded vigorously and slowly lifted the girl's shirt up. I wanted to hurl with the amount of dark blood that was spilling thickly and slowly from her side.

"What's your name?" Grandma asked him.

"Adam," he replied frantically.

"And hers?"

"Audrey."

Grandma was already packing gauze on the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Is she your sister?"

"Girlfriend," he corrected. "Can you help her? Please?"

"I'm doing my best," my grandmother answered, shaking some of her graying hair from her face. "Audrey!" she called to the girl. I saw her eyelids flutter weakly. "Audrey, I'm Dr. Mason. I'm going to help you but you have to work with me alright? I need you to stay awake for me. Squeeze my hand once if you understand what I'm saying." I watched the auburn-haired girl's fingers twitch feebly. Grandma breathed a sigh of relief.

"She's conscious. She's not out of the woods yet but that's a good sign. How long ago did this happen?"

"I don't know. Not too long. We were running," Adam replied. I felt bad for him. His brown eyes were panicked and watery as he practically fell all over his prostrate girlfriend. I've never had a girlfriend before, but I know I'd probably do the same thing if I were in his place.

"Does she have a family?"

Adam nodded. "But they live in Cambridge. We were out at dinner."

Grandma nodded as she continued tending to the wound. "Where is yours?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. We live in Roxbury. Is she going to make it, Dr. Mason?"

My grandmother sat back on her heels and looked at Audrey. "That really depends. I've done everything I can at this point. Hopefully she'll be strong enough to fight it. I think you two better stay here for now, though. This is my grandson Gabe. He'll help you get Audrey into the house." Grandma turned to me. "Gabe, can you help Adam take her to Rebecca's room?"

"But Rebecca's there," I reminded her.

"I know. Maybe she can keep an eye on her."

I agreed and helped Adam take his girlfriend into the house.

"Thank you," he said to me gratefully. "If you hadn't stopped to help us I'm sure she would have died."

"No problem," I replied proudly. "Welcome to the 2nd Mass."

"The what?" he questioned.

"Second Massachusetts," I answered. "We're fighting the aliens." No one had officially called us the 2nd Mass yet but I knew that before long we'd all start referring to ourselves as that.

Adam nodded. "I'd sure like to get in on that."

_I'm sure you would. Everyone does. Only your mom's not stopping you_.

I knocked softly at the door, unsure if Rebecca was up yet. I nearly gasped when Jesse opened it. _What was he doing in there, alone with my sister? _I saw Rebecca sit up in bed. "I brought you some company," I said kind of coldly. We carried Audrey into the room and Rebecca looked her over.

"This is Audrey," I said, laying the girl down on the bed beside my sister. _This way Jesse can't climb in even if he does get any ideas_. "She got impaled running from Skitters. This is her boyfriend Adam. Grandma asked you to keep an eye on her while she recovers."

My sister nodded mutely.

"How are you feeling?" I finally asked.

"Better," she touched the gauze on her forehead. "Jesse's been keeping me company."

I looked at him with my fiercest glare, but I'm pretty sure it did nothing to intimidate him. "Well anyway, I'm going to go. Take good care of Audrey."

Adam interrupted. "Um…I'd like to stay with her if that's okay…" He looked uncomfortable in the room of strangers but I understood he only wanted to be with his girlfriend. I deferred to Rebecca. It _was _her room.

"Yeah," she smiled. I knew she'd secretly be thinking of how romantic it was.

I fixed Jesse one more cold look and then left, hoping I'd catch my mom and convince her to let me fight now that I'd handled a mini crisis of my own. _Fat chance, Gabe_.

* * *

**A/N: Extra long chapter to celebrate my return! How's that? Protective Gabe, injured Rebecca, two new characters…I wonder how they'll fit in? Are Adam and Audrey a trap? And what's up with Jesse and Rebecca in a dark room with the door shut? Hmmm... And where's Jimmy? That'll be revealed next chapter. Where's Hal and Ben (and Dr. Peters)? That'll come in due time. When will the aliens make landfall at the new 2****nd**** Mass? Well that's coming up too. Please leave a review and let me know if you like this new direction I've headed down. And what you think of Adam and Audrey, too. Thanks guys. As I said, updates may still be sporadic but don't let that get ya down! I promise there's plenty more! **


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